I'm Sandra Adams, a blogger and enthusiast of many eclectic targets, including pottery and industrial equipment and supplies. I've traced my family tree as far back as I can go and there is not one moment where my family hasn't been involved in manufacturing. My dad worked as a mechanic repairing industrial machinery and if it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have anyone to pass down his knowledge to. I've always wanted to know what my dad was up to, so I'd ask him what he did everyday. I've always been really curious and this has lead me to develop a really strong understanding of industrial equipment. My love for industrial equipment hasn't waned and now I feel like sharing this knowledge with others. I've created this blog for this exact purpose.
If you're putting together a piece of machinery as part of an invention or art project, you need to know at least a little bit about how machining works. Tolerance -- the range in which a particular part's specs can fall and still be OK for use -- is a major part of machining as nothing can really be done without knowing the tolerance for each part. People working in factories learn about tolerance in machining very quickly, but if you haven't spent time in a factory or lab, then tolerance may be a vague term to you, and it may be one you tend to ignore. Don't ignore it; you and your project will need it.
What Is Tolerance?
In terms of machining, tolerance is a range on either side of a set value, and any measurements related to that value that fall in that range are considered to be still good for use. The set value might be a washer that's 2 mm thick, and the tolerance, which will be in very, very small numbers, will create a range around that 2 mm. So a washer that happens to be 2.000005 mm thick will be just fine to use if the tolerance range for wherever that washer will go includes that extra 0.000005 mm.
Why Is Some Tolerance OK?
Tolerance has to be OK because it's difficult to create part after part after part with all exact measurements. During the creation process, every single part of the machine that's creating a part is going to move, either because it's supposed to move or because it's subject to vibrations. You basically get this chain reaction of parts moving ever so slightly out of alignment. Tolerance allows for that movement and allows manufacturers to take that movement into account when looking at what sizes a part can be and still be usable.
Tolerance exists basically everywhere, and everything has a tolerance from the supposed norm, or the exact value that something is supposed to be. The tolerance range may just be so small that you never notice it.
Limits to Tolerance
Tolerance varies for everything, too, and there are always limits. You can't use a washer that's an inch thick on a machine that needs a thinner washer. Manufacturers or those who need parts need to determine the appropriate tolerance range first so that the companies making the parts know what's acceptable and what's not. There's no sense in making washers that may be 2.000005 mm when the lower limit of the tolerance range turns out to be 2.000002 mm.
As someone requesting that parts be made for a project, you might not have the resources to determine tolerance in nanometers, so it's important to find a way to get parts made that adhere as closely as possible to the preferred value that you need, such as creating washers that are as close to 2 mm thick as possible. Plastic injection molding is a very good technique that creates plastic parts in large quantities that meet very narrow tolerances. If you need any plastic parts made, ask about using injection molding for the best results possible.
To learn more, contact a company that does plastic injection molding.
Share27 July 2020
