Abstract

The integration between part design and inspection process design can be carried out on three main levels: geometry, dimensions and tolerances. Usually, the integration of these levels is only carried out at the geometry level, without a complete integration of the dimension and tolerance levels. For this reason, this research establishes a new approach to modeling and automating the part and inspection process design through the integration of part geometry and geometrical dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) in a knowledge based system (KBS). In this context, the information related to part design and inspection process design has been described and integrated in a knowledge model. This model establishes the connection among part geometry, GD&T and dimensional inspection process knowledge. This model has been used to develop a prototype knowledge based system in order to validate the automation of the inspection process. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.