Tolerance-Compensating Fastening Assembly for Self-Aligning Installation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The installation of multiple components along a line in structures like aircraft cabins is cumbersome and time-consuming due to varying tolerances, requiring different spacers for each object, which complicates the alignment and orientation of components relative to the fuselage.
Innovation Solution
A tolerance-compensating fastening arrangement featuring a serrated fastening bolt and a socket base with a conical funnel and jaw segments that adjust radially and vertically to compensate for horizontal, vertical, and angular tolerances, allowing for self-finding and automated installation by moving the socket base within the female fastener and locking the bolt in place.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If different spacers are used for each object to level out tolerances, then positioning precision is improved, but installation time and complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The fastening system changes the parameter of the socket base position along the tolerance compensation axis, allowing it to move freely within a range to accommodate tolerance variations. This eliminates the need for different spacer thicknesses while maintaining positioning precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The fastening system uses a universal socket base design that can accommodate multiple objects with different tolerance variations using the same fastening components. The socket base's ability to move along the tolerance compensation axis provides multi-functionality, replacing the need for multiple specific spacer types.
2Manufacturing precision
If different spacers are used for each object to compensate for tolerance variations, then positioning accuracy is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The fastening system merges the tolerance compensation function into the socket base itself, which can move along the tolerance compensation axis. This combines what would otherwise require separate spacers of different thicknesses into a single integrated solution, reducing device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The socket base's position parameter along the tolerance compensation axis is made variable, allowing it to adapt to different tolerance conditions. This single parameter change capability replaces the need for multiple fixed-thickness spacers, simplifying the overall system.
3Manufacturing precision
If multiple spacers of different sizes are required for alignment, then orientation precision is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The socket base's movable parameter along the tolerance compensation axis allows automatic adaptation to orientation variations. This eliminates the need for operators to select and install different spacer sizes, greatly improving ease of operation while maintaining orientation precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The fastening system performs self-alignment through the socket base's ability to move along the tolerance compensation axis. The system automatically compensates for orientation variations without requiring operator intervention to select appropriate spacers, making installation simpler and faster.
Data Source
AI summary
A tolerance-compensating fastening arrangement for fastening a component to a structure includes a male fastener having a fastening bolt having a serrated outer profile; and a female fastener having a socket base arranged therewithin movable along a horizontal plane and having a conical funnel to receive the bolt such that horizontal tolerances between the male and female fasteners are compensable by movement of the socket base actuated through contact of the bolt with an inner surface of the funnel; and a socket jaw arranged on the socket base and having several jaw segments arranged circumferentially around a vertical axis to form a central jaw opening configured to receive the bolt through the funnel, the jaw segments configured movable radially with respect to the vertical axis to adjust a size of the jaw opening to retain the bolt along the vertical axis via contact of the serrated inner and outer profiles.