Computer Aided Tolerancing of Composite Elevator Assembly Involving Clamping Forces Coordination

Abstract Clamping forces are applied to the composite elevator due to the stochastic deviations, and in turn affect the stackup of deviations. The paper presents a computer aided tolerancing of composite elevator assembly involving clamping forces coordination. Based on the verified FEA model, the clamping force modified probability distribution is obtained. The tolerance simulation is conducted with the modified distribution. Principal component analysis is employed to extract the main deformation mode of the composite elevator from the tolerance simulation results. The clamping forces are coordinated based on the extracted deformation mode to accomplish the specifications of the joints.