Consideration of operational wear in tolerance analysis for process-oriented tolerancing

Besides manufacturing-induced part deviations, operational wear in persistent moving assemblies leads to time-dependent deviations of part geometries and the functionality of the mechanism. This article presents an approach based on the Archard wear model to predict the lifetime-functionality of an assembly by carrying out a tolerance analysis, considering both, time-dependent variations in wear activity due to volume loss and the impact of process-induced geometrical variation on the wear. The novelty of this approach lies in the consideration of time-varying operational wear effects in tolerance analysis and non-conformance rate estimation. To prove its applicability, the approach is applied to a oneway-clutch.