New Language and Mathematical Background Supporting Geometrical Product Specifications

Evolution of International Standards related to the product development process requires a harmonisation of technological aspects involved in the design, manufacturing and inspection phases. This paper provides a review of the state of the art in the Geometrical Product Specifications project sponsored by International Standard Organisation and outlines some important fall-outs in technological fields. Based on the most relevant results acquired by GPS project, this paper demonstrates that new solutions can be introduced to manage the technological features in mechanical objects. One of these solutions, based on a generalised probabilistic characterisation of measured surfaces, provides a unifying approach to product geometrical description along the phases of design, manufacturing and inspection. It seems able to solve some of the most annoying problems encountered in the GPS approach such as surface partitioning, surface association and uncertainty expression.