Chapter 7.

Mechanical
Tolerance Stackup and Analysis

Quoc-Nguyen Banh, PhD

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 Outline

• What is Tolerance stack-up

• Benefits
• Factors to be considered for loop diagram
• Steps in stack-up
• Examples with or without geometric
Tolerances

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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 Classification

• Tolerance stack-up of a part

• Tolerance stack-up of an assembly

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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 • 1D, 2D or 3D stack-up

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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 Component of a Stack-up

o Normal link: (Ai , i = 1,2, … , n) independent

tolerance’s value
o Closing link: (A) tolerance’s value
depends on other links

A

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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
• Increasing links: the bigger its value is the
larger closing link is.
• Decreasing links: the bigger its value is the
smaller closing link is.

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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 Example

A1 A2 AA33
A4A4

Increasing link Closing link

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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 A1 AA2 2 A3A3
A4

Decreasing link Closing link

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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 Principles to form a Tolerance stack-up
• All the links must form a close loop
• Only one closing link in the loop
• There must be a “smallest” loop

A2 A2 A2

A1 A1 A3 A1 A3 A4
A5
A3
A4

Smallest loop
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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 Stack-up Analysis

o Identify GAP, Thickness, Fit needed to be calculated

o List the Dimensions those contributes in Gap,
Thickness, Fit
o Prepare a Loop Diagram
o Same direction tolerance on side and list Their
Tolerances
o Prepare stack-up table (beware of direction in loop)

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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 Loop diagram considerations

o Loop should be in one direction i.e. vertical,

horizontal, or angular
o Loop should be close
o While jumping from one component (in assembly)
o Axis aligned in case of threads
o Surface contact between components

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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 Example

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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 Assembly shift

• The amount that parts can move during assembly due to the clearance
between a hole and a fastener, a hole and a shaft, a width and a slot (like
a key and keyway) or between any external feature within an internal
feature
• It is a measure of how much parts can move relative to one another about
their locating features. 14
Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 Example

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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 Assignment

Verify the assembly

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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 Hint

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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 The reversed problem

To design the components’ value when

knowing the closing link’s (gap) values

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Mechanical Measurement & Tolerance Q-N Banh, Dept. Manufacturing Engineering
 THANK YOU
FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

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