Three‐dimensional quantification of the manufacturing defects for tolerances analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an experimental approach to measure and quantify the three‐dimensional geometrical manufacturing errors on a mass production of parts.Design/methodology/approach – A methodology is developed to model and analyse the combined effect of these errors on a machined feature. Deviation of a machined feature due to the combined errors is expressed in terms of the small displacement torsor (SDT) parameters. Given a tolerance on the machined feature, constraints are specified for that feature to establish a relationship between the tolerance zone of the feature and the torsor parameters. These constraints provide boundaries within which the machined feature must lie. This is used for tolerance analysis of the machined feature. An experimental approach is proposed to measure and quantify the three‐dimensional manufacturing variations as torsors. The results are used to verify the analytical model.Findings – Results show that it is possible to quantify manufacturing ...