Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2000) 16:461–468 2000 Springer-Verlag London Limited Optimal Tolerance Allocation Based on prehensive Evaluation and ic Algorithm S. Ji, X. Li, Y. Ma and H. Cai The Advanced Machining Technology Center, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China It is very important to know how to allocate tolerances econ- has e an important research direction in CAD systems omically for parts in a CAD/CAM system because this directly and integrated CAD/CAM systems [4–7]. affects the machining costs of the parts. A new approach Tolerance allocation is one of the most important problems based on prehensive evaluation (FCE) and a ic for CATD. Given a required tolerance for the assembly, the algorithm (GA) is presented to obtain a rational tolerance planner is first faced with the problem of how to allocate allocation for the parts. First, the current methods for tolerance economically suitable tolerance values for the parts by consider- allocation are reviewed in detail. Then, FCE is used to evaluate ing the trade-off between functional requirements and machin- the machinability of a part; a new optimal model, which can ing costs. Many researchers considered tolerance allocation as fully exploit DFA (design for assembly) and DFM (design for an optimisation problem. The tolerance values of parts were manufacturing), is established bining the functional t