Integrated total cost and Tolerance Optimization with Genetic Algorithm

The tolerance allocation problem has been studied in the literature for decades, usually using mathematical programming (or) heuristic optimization approaches. Elegant tools for minimum cost tolerance allocation have been developed over several decades but still there is no specified tool to find the total cost with respect to machining cost and asymmetric quality loss functions. Objective of this paper is to find the optimized total cost by considering the machining cost and the asymmetric quality loss of an assembly. The non linear multi variable optimization of total cost problem formulated is solved using genetic algorithm. In this work, Piston and cylinder arrangement example was considered for concurrent allocation of design and machining tolerance, as well as to optimize the total cost. The result shows, optimized tolerance will enhances the quality and reduces the total cost