Tolerance Simulation in the Assembling Process Based on Experimental Data from Series Production

The automotive industry is affected by rising quality requirements for modern cars more than ever. Shortening the development period may involve cancelling the hardware prototype phase, without which the learning process of parts and assembling behavior in the assembling process is omitted. In this context, the subject of dimensional management and especially tolerance simulation is an essential tool. For the digital prototyping phase it is essential that the simulation rebuilds the real processes. Through the process of validation by production tests, the simulation model becomes more precise, which is necessary to be faster in the subsequent digital concept validation processes. This paper establishes the challenges in simulating real assembly processes in conventional tolerance simulations. It emphasizes the limits of simulating real processes and component behavior in conventional tolerance simulations. The real process with all possible shim settings cannot be simulated using the simulation tools due to the limited datum targets which can be set. Furthermore the component behavior itself should be integrated in the simulation model to get results that are closer to reality, because the reinforcement parts and the alignment scheme are important for assembly accuracy.