Theoretical Foundations of Mechanical Tolerancing

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9500140 Bisgaard This grant provides funding to develop a theoretical foundation for the tolerancing of mechanical and electro-mechanical products. This foundation will be based on modern statistical theory and decision theory. It will provide a framework that unifies technical as well as economic aspects of the problem. Specifically the approach will take into account the inherent variability in maunfactured products coming from raw materials, maufacturing processes and measurement errors. In addition it will incorporate information about the cost of functional losses coming from deviating from target specifications, manufacturing, and inspection. It will integrate several previous attempts to provide a foundation, including that of the Japanese engineer Dr. Taguchi. The research plan is to build up a unified theory starting with simple problems and increase the complexity as the ideas are tested on practical applications in collaboration with industry. If successful, this research will lead to a more concise language for engineering communication of tolerance information that will avoid current ambiguities; the economic design, manufacturing, and us of products that perform the desired function in a safe, reliable, and predictable manner depend on clear and unambiguous tolerance information. Moreover, the successful completion of this research will provide engineers with scientific and mathematical tools not currently available for the design and evaluation of the performance of tolerances. The current trend toward computerization of engineering information and in particular the use of computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided manufacturing (CAM) tools necessitate a theoretical and mathematical foundation. If this research is successful many problems with current CAD/CAM tools will be alleviated.