VIRTUAL ASSEMBLY ANALYSIS: STANDARD TOLERANCE ANALYSIS COMPARED TO MANUFACTURING SIMULATION AND RELATIVE POSITIONING

Tolerance analysis methods are used in design to prevent a loss of profit caused by geometric manufacturing deviations. Main drawback of these methods is their high level of abstraction and simplification. Therefore, we propose a method to include manufacturing deviations of parts by means of variational Finite Element Analysis and to perform a simulation of the assembly process. The proposed work methodology is explained and compared with state-of-the-art methods of statistical tolerancing. A case study of a deep-drawing assembly is presented to outline the benefits of the presented approach.