Discrete tolerance allocation for product families

Abstract

This article extends earlier research on the discrete tolerance allocation problem in order to optimize an entire product family simultaneously. This methodology enables a top-down tolerancing approach where requirements at assembly level on products within a family are allocated to single part requirements. The proposed solution has been implemented as an interface with an optimization algorithm coupled with variation simulation software. The article also consists of an extensive review on the discrete tolerance allocation problem which motivates the extension of the discrete tolerance allocation problem. The suggested approach has been applied to a robot family consisting of two variants with the same requirements at product level.

Keywords:

• tolerance allocation
• discrete optimization
• product families