Optimal Process Tolerance Balancing Based on Process Capabilities

An optimal approach for process tolerance balancing is presented. The new approach is based on process capabilities and is to be used in the stage of process planning. A nonlinear programming model is used to simultaneously optimise process tolerances of required operations. In the optimisation model, the objective function is to minimise the total manufacturing cost with different weighting factors. Using the estimated standard deviations of the dimensions and the manufacturing cost-tolerance functions, the constraint equations for the process tolerance chains and the manufacturing capability indices are established, together with a model for the economical tolerance bounds of machine tools. A practical example was used to verify the usefulness of the proposed approach. The results of the comparative study show that the proposed approach is more advantageous in relaxing tolerance requirements and in reducing scrap rates generally, compared with the existing methods. ID="A1"Correspondance and offprint requests to: Dr Y. Gao, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong. E-mail: meygao@ust.hk