Towards a Geometric Deviation Model of Product in CAD Environment

Due to development of science and information technology, computer has become an effective and useful tool supporting for product design activities. The numerical model of product is quickly created in Computer-Aided-Design (CAD) environment by product designers. However, this model is a nominal model representing ideal geometric information of product. It is not able to cope with various kinds of disturbances during the whole product life-cycle, especially in manufacturing stage where geometric deviations of product are generated and accumulated by material property defects, manufacturing process errors, tooling deformation, etc. This is a limitation of the current product modeling technology. In addition, most of the simulations of product performance such as kinematics, dynamics, failure, etc., are carried out by using this nominal model. It can make the quality of the product designed not to fully meet the requirements of customers and users. Thus, the paper proposes a method that allows integrating geometric deviations of product in CAD environment. The aim is to deal with the above issues and to take into account various disturbances in product performance prediction.Copyright © 2013 by ASME