Coupling experimental design—digital simulation of junctions for the development of complex tolerance chains

This paper presents a new functional tolerancing method developed for analyzing tri-dimensional variations of mechanical assemblies. The behavior of a junction is simulated with Microsoft EXCEL to quantify the influence of geometrical variations of a given part on a functional requirement. The solver determines the critical situation of the mechanism with respect to the contact constraints and the location and orientation tolerances. The result of this stage is introduced into an experimental design so as to define a relationship between the variation of the functional requirement and the geometric tolerances specified for the surfaces of the parts. The complete inequality ensuring tolerance synthesis is obtained by adding the defects of all junctions forming the vector loop.