A machine element, after design, requires to be manufactured to give it a shape of a product. Therefore, in addition to standard design practices like, selection of proper material, ensuring proper strength and dimension to guard against failure, a designer should have knowledge of basic manufacturing aspects.
In this lesson, we will discuss briefly about some of the basic manufacturing requirements and processes.
First and foremost is assigning proper size to a machine element from
manufacturing view point. As for example, a shaft may be designed to diameter of, say, 40 mm. This means, the nominal diameter of the shaft is 40 mm, but the actual size will be slightly different, because it is impossible to manufacture a shaft of exactly 40 mm diameter, no matter what machine is used. In case the machine element is a mating part with another one, then dimensions of both the parts become important, because they dictate the nature of assembly. The allowable variation in size for the mating parts is called limits and the nature of
assembly due to such variation in size is known as fits.
