Verification of assemblability between toleranced parts

It is desirable for the assemblability of parts to be verified by the computer during the design stage when the tolerances on the parts are stored together with their geometric models and their assembled state. In this case, tolerances would need to be assigned systematically during the design stage while considering the assemblability in advance, which is an example of concurrent engineering activity. To realize the concepts described above, a new method was proposed to determine assemblability when tolerance information and the geometric model of the parts of an assembly in the assembled state are given. This method determines assemblability by subdividing the range of relative motion between parts until there exists a subdivided region that does not cause interference. © 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.