Collaborative design of tolerance for assembly based on variation skeleton model

Assembly variation is one significant factor that affects quality of assembly product. By allocating proper tolerances, the requirement of assembly variation can be satisfied. However, due to the coupling of tolerances, compatibility of model file, it is still difficult to conduct collaborative and trans-platform tolerance design. In this article, tolerance design condition and variation skeleton are proposed to resolve the above questions. First, in order to express the holistic factors considered in the process of tolerance design, constraint, collision and evaluation model of design are set up to cover all kinds of situations. Then through picking up necessary geometry information, the variation skeleton is constructed and utilized to analyze assembly variation in the collaborative environment. Finally, hierarchic organization of information, workflow and mechanism of collision resolving are described to form the entire framework for collaborative tolerance design. An example is illustrated to prove the feasibility of the proposed models and methods.