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- All Subjects: Mechanical Engineering
- All Subjects: Coordinate measuring machines
- Genre: Academic theses
Description
When manufacturing large or complex parts, often a rough operation such as casting is used to create the majority of the part geometry. Due to the highly variable nature of the casting process, for mechanical components that require precision surfaces for functionality or assembly with others, some of the important features are machined to specification. Depending on the relative locations of as-cast to-be-machined features and the amount of material at each, the part may be positioned or ‘set up’ on a fixture in a configuration that will ensure that the pre-specified machining operations will successfully clean up the rough surfaces and produce a part that conforms to any assigned tolerances. For a particular part whose features incur excessive deviation in the casting process, it may be that no setup would yield an acceptable final part. The proposed Setup-Map (S-Map) describes the positions and orientations of a part that will allow for it to be successfully machined, and will be able to determine if a particular part cannot be made to specification.
The Setup Map is a point space in six dimensions where each of the six orthogonal coordinates corresponds to one of the rigid-body displacements in three dimensional space: three rotations and three translations. Any point within the boundaries of the Setup-Map (S-Map) corresponds to a small displacement of the part that satisfies the condition that each feature will lie within its associated tolerance zone after machining. The process for creating the S-Map involves the representation of constraints imposed by the tolerances in simple coordinate systems for each to-be-machined feature. Constraints are then transformed to a single coordinate system where the intersection reveals the common allowable ‘setup’ points. Should an intersection of the six-dimensional constraints exist, an optimization scheme is used to choose a single setup that gives the best chance for machining to be completed successfully. Should no intersection exist, the particular part cannot be machined to specification or must be re-worked with weld metal added to specific locations.
The Setup Map is a point space in six dimensions where each of the six orthogonal coordinates corresponds to one of the rigid-body displacements in three dimensional space: three rotations and three translations. Any point within the boundaries of the Setup-Map (S-Map) corresponds to a small displacement of the part that satisfies the condition that each feature will lie within its associated tolerance zone after machining. The process for creating the S-Map involves the representation of constraints imposed by the tolerances in simple coordinate systems for each to-be-machined feature. Constraints are then transformed to a single coordinate system where the intersection reveals the common allowable ‘setup’ points. Should an intersection of the six-dimensional constraints exist, an optimization scheme is used to choose a single setup that gives the best chance for machining to be completed successfully. Should no intersection exist, the particular part cannot be machined to specification or must be re-worked with weld metal added to specific locations.
ContributorsKalish, Nathan (Author) / Davidson, Joseph K. (Thesis advisor) / Shah, Jami J. (Thesis advisor) / Ren, Yi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Parts are always manufactured with deviations from their nominal geometry due to many reasons such as inherent inaccuracies in the machine tools and environmental conditions. It is a designer job to devise a proper tolerance scheme to allow reasonable freedom to a manufacturer for imperfections without compromising performance. It takes years of experience and strong practical knowledge of the device function, manufacturing process and GD&T standards for a designer to create a good tolerance scheme. There is almost no theoretical resource to help designers in GD&T synthesis. As a result, designers often create inconsistent and incomplete tolerance schemes that lead to high assembly scrap rates. Auto-Tolerancing project was started in the Design Automation Lab (DAL) to investigate the degree to which tolerance synthesis can be automated. Tolerance synthesis includes tolerance schema generation (sans tolerance values) and tolerance value allocation. This thesis aims to address the tolerance schema generation. To develop an automated tolerance schema synthesis toolset, to-be-toleranced features need to be identified, required tolerance types should be determined, a scheme for computer representation of the GD&T information need to be developed, sequence of control should be identified, and a procedure for creating datum reference frames (DRFs) should be developed. The first three steps define the architecture of the tolerance schema generation module while the last two steps setup a base to create a proper tolerance scheme with the help of GD&T good practice rules obtained from experts. The GD&T scheme recommended by this module is used by the tolerance value allocation/analysis module to complete the process of automated tolerance synthesis. Various test cases are studied to verify the suitability of this module. The results show that software-generated schemas are proper enough to address the assemblability issues (first order tolerancing). Since this novel technology is at its initial stage of development, performing further researches and case studies will definitely help to improve the software for making more comprehensive tolerance schemas that cover design intent (second order tolerancing) and cost optimization (third order tolerancing).
ContributorsHejazi, Sayed Mohammad (Author) / Shah, Jami J. (Thesis advisor) / Davidson, Joseph K. (Committee member) / Hansford, Dianne (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
The essence of this research is the reconciliation and standardization of feature fitting algorithms used in Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) software and the development of Inspection Maps (i-Maps) for representing geometric tolerances in the inspection stage based on these standardized algorithms. The i-Map is a hypothetical point-space that represents the substitute feature evaluated for an actual part in the inspection stage. The first step in this research is to investigate the algorithms used for evaluating substitute features in current CMM software. For this, a survey of feature fitting algorithms available in the literature was performed and then a case study was done to reverse engineer the feature fitting algorithms used in commercial CMM software. The experiments proved that algorithms based on least squares technique are mostly used for GD&T; inspection and this wrong choice of fitting algorithm results in errors and deficiency in the inspection process. Based on the results, a standardization of fitting algorithms is proposed in light of the definition provided in the ASME Y14.5 standard and an interpretation of manual inspection practices. Standardized algorithms for evaluating substitute features from CMM data, consistent with the ASME Y14.5 standard and manual inspection practices for each tolerance type applicable to planar features are developed. Second, these standardized algorithms developed for substitute feature fitting are then used to develop i-Maps for size, orientation and flatness tolerances that apply to their respective feature types. Third, a methodology for Statistical Process Control (SPC) using the I-Maps is proposed by direct fitting of i-Maps into the parent T-Maps. Different methods of computing i-Maps, namely, finding mean, computing the convex hull and principal component analysis are explored. The control limits for the process are derived from inspection samples and a framework for statistical control of the process is developed. This also includes computation of basic SPC and process capability metrics.
ContributorsMani, Neelakantan (Author) / Shah, Jami J. (Thesis advisor) / Davidson, Joseph K. (Committee member) / Farin, Gerald (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
A process plan is an instruction set for the manufacture of parts generated from detailed design drawings or CAD models. While these plans are highly detailed about machines, tools, fixtures and operation parameters; tolerances typically show up in less formal manner in such plans, if at all. It is not uncommon to see only dimensional plus/minus values on rough sketches accompanying the instructions. On the other hand, design drawings use standard GD&T (Geometrical Dimensioning and tolerancing) symbols with datums and DRFs (Datum Reference Frames) clearly specified. This is not to say that process planners do not consider tolerances; they are implied by way of choices of fixtures, tools, machines, and operations. When converting design tolerances to the manufacturing datum flow, process planners do tolerance charting, that is based on operation sequence but the resulting plans cannot be audited for conformance to design specification.
In this thesis, I will present a framework for explicating the GD&T schema implied by machining process plans. The first step is to derive the DRFs from the fixturing method in each set-up. Then basic dimensions for the features to be machined in each set up are determined with respect to the extracted DRF. Using shop data for the machines and operations involved, the range of possible geometric variations are estimated for each type of tolerances (form, size, orientation, and position). The sequence of manufacturing operations determines the datum flow chain. Once we have a formal manufacturing GD&T schema, we can analyze and compare it to tolerance specifications from design using the T-map math model. Since the model is based on the manufacturing process plan, it is called resulting T-map or m-map. Then the process plan can be validated by adjusting parameters so that the m-map lies within the T-map created for the design drawing. How the m-map is created to be compared with the T-map is the focus of this research.
In this thesis, I will present a framework for explicating the GD&T schema implied by machining process plans. The first step is to derive the DRFs from the fixturing method in each set-up. Then basic dimensions for the features to be machined in each set up are determined with respect to the extracted DRF. Using shop data for the machines and operations involved, the range of possible geometric variations are estimated for each type of tolerances (form, size, orientation, and position). The sequence of manufacturing operations determines the datum flow chain. Once we have a formal manufacturing GD&T schema, we can analyze and compare it to tolerance specifications from design using the T-map math model. Since the model is based on the manufacturing process plan, it is called resulting T-map or m-map. Then the process plan can be validated by adjusting parameters so that the m-map lies within the T-map created for the design drawing. How the m-map is created to be compared with the T-map is the focus of this research.
ContributorsHaghighi, Payam (Author) / Shah, Jami J. (Thesis advisor) / Davidson, Joseph K. (Committee member) / Ren, Yi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015