Density effect of inspection data points in as-built modeling of parts

摘要

At Los Alamos National Laboratory, the use of inspection data generated at various stages of the life cycle of a product is being investigated in a feedback process to the design engineers and physicists. This data will be used to determine through analysis how to optimize assembly, mitigate nominal deviations, and confront aging issues. This as-built engineering philosophy characterizes a system through the topographical data generated through inspection. Through intricate modeling techniques, the topographical definition gives rise to a solid model in a Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) software package such as Parametric Technologies Pro/ENGINEER(trademark). A strictly analytical approach was used to exercise the as-built engineering method in characterizing components. A hypothetical component was used and mass properties were calculated analytically to provide nominal definition. This was then compared to mass properties calculated as a result of modeling theoretical inspection data in two formats; manual-collected data such as that obtained from a Coordinate Measuring Machine (specifically the Brown and Sharp) inspection process and automated-collected data such as obtained from a Sheffield inspection process. Mass properties calculated from a solid model generated using the Pro/ENGINEER(trademark) modeling operations were also compared with the nominal definition.