Calculating the Impact of Form Variations on the Position of Parts

Methods to calculate the possible effects of assigned tolerances to key criteria of a product are widely used to assure high quality standards. The used algorithms of state of the art tolerance analysis tools are based on some simplification so that the effects of form tolerances can be calculated only approximately, but in appropriate time. The creation of a tolerance model takes a relative high effort and has to be done by a specialist, because existing tolerance analysis software is complex. This has negative effects on the product development process, because the product developer has to wait until the tolerance specialist has finished the analysis. In this work a previously published method to correctly model the effects of form tolerances is enhanced so that it is possible for the user to generate a tolerance analysis model with a few parameters. Different parts with deviation inside the tolerance boundaries are simulated by the method. The parts are assembled by a relative positioning algorithm which uses a particle swarm optimizer to calculate the position. An automatic adoption of the search space of the particle swarm optimizer has been developed and tested with a pin/hole assembly, to assure that the user can generate a tolerance analysis model without background knowledge about the method.