MAE 5200

Dimensional Tolerancing in Mechanical Design

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2014-2015.

Designers use dimensional tolerances to limit spatial variations in mechanical parts and assemblies; the primary goals are interchangeability in assembly, performance, and cost. This course covers traditional limit tolerances briefly but focuses mainly on modern geometric tolerances and their role in assembly control. Students learn how to represent assemblies in terms of mating and relational constraints, and how to design tolerances and inspection procedures from part and assembly specifications.

When Offered Spring. (Seven weeks)

Prerequisites/Corequisites Prerequisite: MAE 2250 or equivalent CAD-based design course, plus 2.5 years of engineering mathematics through probability and statistics.

• Assembly Analysis: students will understand the principles used to determine, in mechanical assemblies, the critical part-mating and intra-part feature constraints whose variations must be controlled with tolerances.
• Tolerancing Principles: understand the containment-zone principles used in geometric tolerancing, and the principles used in tolerance design to preserve functionality while insuring part interchangeability.
• Standards & Conformance: understand the distinctive characteristics of the Y14.5 American tolerancing standard and some of the methods used to test parts for conformance to Y14.5 tolerance specifications.
• Assembly Design: be able to specify the assembly part-mating constraints and the intra-part feature constraints needed in moderately complex assemblies to attain specified performance goals.
• Tolerance Design: be able to design Y14.5-compliant tolerances for parts in moderately complex assemblies that will preserve the assemblies' functionality while guaranteeing part inter-changeability.
• Conformance Assessment: be able to interpret Y14.5-compliant tolerances on industrial parts of moderate complexity, and to design gages or recommend measurement procedures for testing conformance to many Y14.5 tolerances.

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