Alex will personally sign his new ISO Geometrical Tolerancing Reference Guide for those who pre-order during the special 25% sale. Read more about the reference guide.

Until April 30, 2010, you can pre-order your copy of the ISO reference guide for only $71, a savings of $24 off the $95 introductory price. Estimated shipping date for the book is mid-May, 2010.

Act now to save money and receive a personally autographed copy of the book.

Alex Krulikowski’s ISO Geometrical Tolerancing Reference Guide is now available for pre-order. The book has taken more than a year to complete and compiles a large amount of information about ISO 1101:2004 and its companion standards into one comprehensive, easily accessible reference guide. This handy reference saves companies from purchasing, researching, and organizing much of the information themselves.

The four major benefits the reference guide provides to your company include:

Ease of Use
ISO standards are organized as single topic documents. This system often means that several ISO standards are required to obtain a complete understanding of a subject. For example, ISO 5458 is the standard on the position tolerance; however, ISO 1101 – Geometrical Tolerances, and ISO 5459 – Datum Specification are also required if one has any hope of understanding any position tolerance specification. In addition, some applications would require ISO 10578:1992 -  Projected Tolerance Zones, and ISO 10579-NR -  Non-rigid Parts to understand a position tolerance specification.

The ISO Reference Guide simplifies using ISO standards by collecting volumes of information into one book with clearly marked topics. Cross-referenced concepts, a glossary, a topical index, and hundreds of easy-to-understand tables and figures complete the explanation of ISO practices. This thorough guidebook explains basic ISO dimensioning concepts and conventions, geometrical tolerances, surface texture and imperfections, and even includes a symbol-by-symbol comparison of ASME Y14.5 and ISO specifications.

Time Savings
Alex and two other dimensional engineering experts spent over a year completing the research, comparison, and analysis of the ISO geometrical product specification (GPS) system. This collective effort, combined with Alex’s insights from his contributions to the ISO TC213 Committee, increased the ability to sort through seemingly conflicting or vague ISO requirements. In industry, this reference guide can save companies hundreds of hours searching for tolerancing information spread over dozens of ISO standards.

Cost Savings
Most companies require multiple copies of their applicable standards. Even if a company could operate with one set of ISO standards for the engineers and designers in a technical center, one set for the machinist and inspectors in the plant, and one set for managers and senior staff to support sales negotiations and contract reviews, the cost could easily be more than $1000 US for each set of standards. Alex Krulikowski’s ISO Geometrical Tolerancing Reference Guide provides an accurate and easy-to-read explanation of these requirements for around $100 US.

Comprehensive Understanding of ISO GPS System
Alex Krulikowski’s ISO Geometrical Tolerancing Reference Guide is written with the influence of nearly 70 ISO geometrical product specification (GPS) standards. More than 20 ISO GPS standards are directly covered in the text, with dozens more cited throughout the book. This reference guide provides the user with a comprehensive understanding of the ISO GPS system and prepares the reader to better understand the text of the ISO standards themselves.

Q – If a basic dimension does not show a specific tolerance what tolerance should be applied?

Elton Hughes

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A – Basic dimensions by nature are a theoretically exact value; however, the feature(s) of a part they define as ideal or exact do need to have tolerances to permit acceptable levels of imperfection during manufacturing.

When a feature is defined with basic dimensions, the tolerance for that feature must be expressed through a geometric tolerance. Most often, the geometric tolerance is indicated directly to the feature or feature of size on the face of the drawing; however, some companies include a general geometrical tolerance (such as a position tolerance or profile of a surface tolerance) in the drawing’s general notes. This can be an effective tool when the note is carefully written.

Drawings based on ISO standards frequently use a class of general geometrical tolerances standardized in ISO 2768-2 :1989. The three classes are identified through the use of the upper case letters H, K, or L after the ISO 2768 indication on the drawing. You would need a copy of the standard to interpret the amount of tolerance available.

If you are absolutely certain that a geometrical tolerance has not been applied to the basic dimension (check all drawing views), then the drawing must be considered as incomplete. Without a tolerance, selecting a manufacturing process for the considered feature is impossible to do with any amount of certainty, and there is no acceptance criteria to compare measurements to during the inspection process.

Thanks for writing,

Alex

The new ASME standard contains numerous changes that affect the specification and interpretation of tolerancing. Companies deciding whether or not to update to the new standard need to understand what has changed and how these changes will impact their product.

As one of the people involved in creating this new version of ASME Y14.5, I have developed a one-day “ASME Y14.5-2009 Update Workshop” that will teach you about the pertinent changes to the standard. This workshop covers over sixty significant revisions, additions, and deletions to the standard. I’ll explain new features and compare them to the 1994 Standard. As part of the course, you’ll receive a set of comprehensive, illustrated charts that highlight itemized changes in the standard.

This drawing shows a small percentage of the changes in the ASME Y14.5 Standard. Click to see the entire drawing.

I’ll explain the major changes to the standard, including:

• Over thirty new or revised terms
• Sixteen new or revised symbols
• Revisions and additions to the fundamental rules
• Revisions and additions to the concept of feature of size
• Revisions and new symbols for datum specifications
• Revisions to composite position tolerances
• Surface boundaries and axis methods of interpretation
• Revisions and new additions to profile tolerances

The ASME Y14.5 1994-2009 Update Course will help you to:

• Understand changes in the standard
• Learn about new symbols and how to apply them to drawings
• Determine the impact of the new standard

ETI can provide this training at your site, and it is also being offered as a public workshop in Michigan on Monday, September 28, 2009. The regular price of this workshop is $375; the first 10 registrants pay only $175.

Attendees must have a basic understanding of Y14.5-1994 Dimensioning and Tolerancing practices.

A few months ago, I created a survey asking whether companies plan to adopt the new Y14.5-2009 standard, stay with the 1994 standard, or change to ISO standards. Using statistics elicited from the survey responses, I have developed a white paper addressing these issues.

“Deliberations on Dimensioning and Tolerancing Standards” is a 12-page paper that will help organizations decide what path may be the best for them. It includes a summary of the major changes to the ASME Y14.5 standard and insight into what other companies are planning. It also includes my deliberations and recommendations on changing dimensioning standards.

It’s available for $25 on our website.

I’ve had many clients ask me what’s new in the ASME Y14.5-2009 Standard. As you can imagine, a standard that has been 15 years in the making contains numerous changes. There are over 20 new or revised symbols and over 40 new or revised terms. In fact, almost every paragraph of the standard has some revision.

In order to provide a quick reference illustrating many of the standard changes and additions, I’ve created a set of charts comparing the features of ASME Y14.5M-1994 and ASME Y14.5-2009.

The New Features Comparison Chart Set is a comprehensive set of two, 2-sided, 11×17 charts that itemize changes in the standard. It highlights additions, revisions, and modifications to symbols, terms, and modifiers, including changes to the MMC modifier, feature of size and “irregular” feature of size, the new datum translation modifier, and numerous other new features.

Because it provides the 2009 standard references, you can quickly look up additional information as you need to on the job. The charts fits neatly in a 3-ring binder.

The two-chart set is only $12.

I recently co-authored an article with my colleague James R. Roll about the importance of using GD&T for detecting bad design before production. The article, “Avoiding Design Problems With Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing,” was published a few weeks ago in Machine Design magazine.

Here’s a short excerpt:

Datum selection is the best place to start when managing variation during the PDP. A robust datum scheme uses datums that best prevent the parts from moving out of position, minimizes the number of items in a tolerance stack, is well controlled within the part (location tolerances and rigid features) and is shared by as many manufacturing processes as possible.

The datum scheme is largely driven by the product-build strategy and system requirements, thus it is important to consider the effect of datum selection early in a PDP (requirements and system design phases). The design-and-build strategy defined at this stage will have the largest effect on product quality with the least cost. Mistakes made at this stage will be expensive to fix at later stages, if they can be corrected at all.

Please read the full article at the magazine’s website here and let me know what you think. I look forward to your feedback.

“The economic success of manufacturing firms depends on their ability to identify the needs of customers and to quickly create products that meet these needs and can be produced at low cost.”

- Karl T. Ulrich and Stephen D. Eppinger,
Product Design and Development, 2004

A great book! Should be required reading for all product engineers.

My thought is that functional dimensioning supports Karl’s quote because it protects the customer needs and provides the largest possible tolerance for manufacturing.

Where did the year go? It’s already time to start thinking about next year’s GD&T training plan.

To make it easier, we’ve already posted the whole year’s public workshop schedule online.

In 2009, we’ll be offering the following workshops at our Detroit area headquarters in Westland, Michigan:

- Fundamentals of GD&T 2-Day (ASME Y14.5M-1994)
- Advanced Concepts of GD&T 2-Day (ASME Y14.5M-1994)
- Tolerance Stacks 2-Day (Concept Driven)
- Intro to Statistical Tolerance Stacks 1-Day (Concept Driven)

All workshops include:
- Course materials/handouts
- An official certificate of completion
- Continental breakfast and snacks

There are also bonus materials given out with each workshop.

If you have 5 or more employees who need training, ETI can bring the training to your site, but our public workshops are perfect for companies who have fewer employees to train and for individuals who need training.

Come visit us next year. We’ll get the snacks ready!

Hopefully by now, some of you have taken a look at the draft of the new ASME Y14 Standard and have developed some comments. The October 21st deadline to submit them is just around the corner. The comments we receive from the public are an important part of the review process.

I have compiled a list of about 150 comments that I would be happy to share. You can take a look at some of the issues that I found and consider them while you develop your own comments.

Remember, if you can’t attend the upcoming ASME Y14 Committee meeting, you can still comment. Here’s more info from the ASME site.

The public review proposal is available in hard copy for $85 from:

Mayra Santiago, Secretary A
E-mail: ansibox@asme.org
ASME Codes & Standards
Three Park Avenue, MS/23E2
New York, NY 10016