Implications of tolerance system interpretation on past and present dimensional variability studies

摘要

Dimensional variability studies and published dimensional variability standards have been used by the foundry industry for years as an indicator of the casting process' ability to produce uniform parts. These studies are an extremely useful tool in the continuous ''dimensional dialogue'' between foundries and customers. The nature of these studies, and of the current tolerancing systems used by casting designers, leaves room for some misinterpretation and misuse of these study results. This paper contains two important discussions. The first part explains exactly what these studies represent. Following this is a brief explanation on dimensional and geometric tolerances and how they communicate dimensional requirements.