Integrated computer-automated tolerance management in early design stages

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In the previous research project "Tolerance management in early design stages", fundamental methods for early consideration of tolerances were developed. The results from the application of the individual approaches were linked with each other and with the conventional design process. Since the potential and applicability of these approaches strongly depend on the stored design and tolerance knowledge, the present project focuses not only on the further development of tolerance management methods but also on the specific provision of relevant data. For this purpose, robust design and tolerance management methods developed in the first phase of the project will be expanded and new ones are added in order to support the designer in the tolerance-compliant product development. The scientific challenge is the automation of the process in order to help to achieve reliable results independent of the user. The data management to be developed for this purpose allows consistent management of the product development information (from task classification to detail design) relevant to the tolerancing process. By defining rules (e.g. inferences in ontologies), relevant implicit knowledge can be used in early product development phases to automate the process. In this way, the methodology enables the tolerance concept to be verified even before the final product design without considerable additional effort. Due to the close link to the product development process this methodology improves the product design and thus contributes to avoiding costly iterations at the end of product development.