Many of us I’m sure would generally agree with the saying that no-one is perfect, but could the same be said for manufactured parts? Would it surprise you to hear that there is no such thing as perfection in the manufacturing world? And that there are acceptable degrees of variation?
Like with many things, there are naturally variations in material characteristics and in mechanical design engineering this means that parts are 'usually' larger or smaller than initially designed. So to avoid an expensive guessing game, tolerance analysis software is used to help with what the effects of the expected variation of measurements might be.
Without getting too technical, tolerance analysis is a study of all the individual mechanical parts and assemblies, which make up a whole product. It basically determines optimum tolerances and assesses how imperfections, as they are manufactured, will affect the capability of a product to meet customer expectations.
Tolerance analysis is undertaken to help engineers understand mechanical fit and performance and identify any design issues that need to be modified, before they become bigger problems further down the line. So for those of us involved in product development, the process helps mitigate risk, reduce costs and lessen time to market.
Engineers are constantly evaluating form, fit and function and this is part of the overall process to manage the quality and cost of a product. It’s all in a day’s work, seeking manufacturing perfection, as best we design engineers can.
