Development of automatic evaluation technology for assembly of joints at design stage

Abstract

We developed an “Insight CAD system” as one of the design support technologies. The purpose of the Insight CAD system development is to check design rules automatically on 3DCAD, and to provide information about the violation part or the violation list for designers. In this paper, we report the rule check on the evaluation of assemblability. First, we developed a weldability function and generated two digitized rules. One rule is related to the distance between the welding lines, and the other is related to the insertion space of the welding torch. Next, we generated two rules on the assemblability during bolt fastening. One rule is related to the diameter of the hole into which the bolt inserts, the other is related to the position of the hole. We evaluated the four newly developed rules using a simplified model and found that the violation parts can be identified automatically with respect to the four newly developed rules. This technology can help designers to shorten the check time, reduce rework from manufacturing to design, and improve product quality.

Keywords

• 3dcad
• computational geometry
• feature shape recognition
• automatic rule check
• design for manufacturability
• design for assemblability