A quantitative Comparison of Tolerance Analysis Approaches for Rigid Mechanical Assemblies

Tolerance analysis is a key tool to predict the consequences of geometric variations on product quality. During the last decades, various approaches for the computer-aided tolerance analysis have been proposed, where each of them has specific advantages and disadvantages. In this contribution, three tolerance analysis approaches, namely tolerance stacks, vector loops, and the tolerance analysis based on the Small Displacement Torsor are quantitatively compared with the tolerance analysis based on Skin Model Shapes considering a typical case study. The novelty of the contribution lies in the profound assessment of these approaches and their results. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.