Manufacturing signature: ana eronautical case study

Generally manufacturing processes are subjected to unpredictable variations, affecting process conditions, that yields manufactured parts characterized by geometric errors. This is due to the variability of the manufacturing conditions and to the behavior of the tools used in the manufacturing process (wear, thermal expansion or elastic deformation). Therefore, even if two part produced by the same manufacturing process have different local deviation, these are similar; this subject in literature is addressed as "Manufacturing Signature" (MS). In this work an approach to evaluate the form error of a freeform surface with profile tolerances by modeling the manufacturing signature is proposed. An industrial case study is discussed: an aeronautical component with free-form surfaces. Based on discrete data acquired by a Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM), the manufacturing signature model is created, discussed and used to analyze the Manufacturing process.