Alternative design specifications of prismatic parts for manufactur ability

Abstract It is argued that design dimension specifications contribute to the manufacturability of a part and should therefore be subjected to optimization, targeting minimal tolerance stacks in a process plan. The optimality of a process plan, and therefore of a design, depends on the manufacuring environment. As this may change or be unknown at the deisgn stage, this paper proposes a mathematical approach to redimension a design without imparing the functionality of the part. The calculation of tolerances for substitute dimensions is emphasized, depending on the role of a dimension in the design.