Dimensions,

Symbols and
Tolerances

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember
• One of the problems of manufacture is that nothing
can ever be made exactly to a size, even to atomic
proportions.
• The permissible variation of a dimension is termed
the tolerance.
• When a part is to be dimensioned, the value and
importance of any dimension will depend upon a
variety of factors.
• These factors will be concerned with:
– the precision needed,
– the accepted variability,
– the function and
– the relationship to other features.
• Functional Dimensions the most important
dimension to achieve the function of object to the
function of other objects (always followed by special
tolerances or custom tolerances).
• Non-Functional Dimensions A
size that does not affect the work
function of the object, and is
needed only to assist the working
or manufacturing process.
• Additional Dimensions  This
dimension is only informational
purposes.
Pic. Functional
and non-
functional
dimensions of a
pulley system
• Features are those aspects of a component which have
individual characteristics and which need dimensioning.

• A datum is a point,
line or surface of a
component to which
dimensions are
referred and from
which measurements
Pic. Datum faces and dimensions
are taken during
inspection.
• Two methods of dimensioning features:
– Firstly, there is the addition of numerical values to
dimension lines and
– Secondly, there is the use of symbols.
• The latest ISO standard concerned with dimensioning
is ISO 129-1:2003.
Pic. A spool
valve with
dimensions
• All dimension values,
graphical symbols and
annotations should
normally be positioned
such that they can be
read from the bottom
and from the right-
Pic. Dimensioning different angular features
hand side of the
drawing.
• The advantage of
parallel and running
dimensioning is that
every feature is
related back to the
same datum.
Pic. Parallel, running and chain dimensioning
• Parallel
Dimensioning
• Chain Dimensioning
 Running Dimensioning
 Coordinate Dimensioning
 Specific Shapes Dimensioning
Pic. Incorrect dimensioning practices
• The ISO standards recommend that abbreviations and
symbols are used wherever possible to avoid a link to
any particular language.
• Symbols can also be used to dimension holes.

Pic. Symbology for dimensioning holes

• Symbology is also used to
define welds.
• There are three basic
parts,
o an arrow line which
points to the joint itself,
o a welding symbol and
o a horizontal reference
line that represents the
joint surface.

Pic. Basic arrow symbol for representing welds

Pic. Examples of the use of welding symbols
• No feature on a component can be perfect.
• During any type of manufacture of a flat surface, there
will be variability inherent within the manufacturing
process caused by vibrations, inequalities, instabilities
and wear.

Pic. Trace of a
fiat surface
showing the
deviations
from the ideal
straightness
• Clearly, each
trace is far from
an ideal circle,
showing that
even a precision
ground hole has
some
variability.

Pic. Roundness traces of a ground hole showing

deviations from an ideal circle
• The variability will be different each time a surface is produced
on the same machine and also between different machines
and processes.
• The variability will be higher with rough-machined surfaces
and lower with precision machined surfaces.
• The result is that if one considers a hole, for example, it
is impossible to state a single value for the diameter.
• However, it is possible to state maximum and minimum
values that cover the range of the variability.
• Thus, when dimensioning any feature, two things must
be provided:
– the basic nominal dimension and
– the permitted variability.
• This will be the nominal dimension plus a tolerance.
• There are essentially two methods of adding tolerances to
dimensions:
• Firstly, universal tolerancing and
• Secondly, specific tolerancing.
• In the universal tolerance case, a note is added to the bottom
of the drawing which says something like ”tolerances to be  0. l
mm”. This means that all the features are to be produced to
their nominal values and the variability allowed is plus or minus
0,1mm.
• The other method of dimensioning is specific
dimensioning in which every dimension has
its own tolerance. This makes every dimension
and the associated tolerance unique and not
related to any other particular tolerance, as is
the case with general tolerancing.

Pic. The variety of

ways that it is possible
to add tolerances to a
dimension
• When tolerances are added to parallel or running dimensions,
the final variability result is significantly different from when
tolerances are added to a chain dimension
• In each case the tolerance on each dimension is  l mm which
is very large and only used for convenience of demonstration.
Thus, with chain tolerancing, the final tolerance value at the
end of the third step will be 3mms whereas with running
tolerances it will only be  1 mm. (cumulative effect)

Pic. The effect of

different methods of
tolerancing on the
build-up of variability
Thank you!
Q&A