2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

A Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) course has been offered at [institution] since the Fall of 2016. This course was added as an elective to the Engineering Technology curriculum at the recommendation of the industrial advisory board to help give students a better understanding of dimensioning and tolerancing through the design, manufacturing, and product inspection processes. The course includes weekly study of GD&T concepts, measurement/inspection activities, and CAD modeling and drawing activities. A critical topic in GD&T is locating holes using the position tolerance rather than conventional plus/minus dimensioning. The position tolerance and position verification/inspection are covered as part of the GD&T concepts. To master position verification, students must be able to read information from a drawing and produced part, determine the maximum material condition (MMC) of a hole, determine the actual size of a hole, calculate the allowed position tolerance, determine the X & Y deviations of the hole, calculate the actual position tolerance, and make an accurate decision whether to accept or reject the position. This paper will give an overview of locating holes with the position tolerance vs. conventional tolerancing, present data from the GD&T class over a seven-year period and describe trends in student performance related to position verification.