Modeling the assembly of compliant, non-ideal parts

Abstract

All manufactured parts and tooling have unavoidable variations from their nominal shapes. During assembly, compliant parts are further deformed by the relatively rigid assembly tooling. Lack of knowledge regarding variations and deformations often results in expensive problems. Since most current computer-aided design (CAD) systems today are based on ideally sized, ideally located, and rigid geometry, they are unable to model or predict the effects of Variations in parts and tooling. This paper proposes a model for the assembly of compliant, non-ideal parts. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.