Conveying Form Fit and Function

[Hartlus]

Manufacturing is telling me that I should convey FFF or engineering intent. I agree, but I've looked around and haven't found any formats for doing so. I can always make a few notes on the drawings, but that doesn't seem like it will always be practical.

Inventor has a feature called the Engineer's Notebook, but it doesn't appear to output anything that I could send to the shop. They work with pdfs and flat patterns; they don't see the Inventor models.

Any advice or tips on neat ways to include FFF info that doesn't require drawings overflowing with text?

 

[Eredhel]

Can you be more specific about what feature's FFF you're looking at without getting too far into intellectual property? Is your organization the owner and looking to convey information to your own manufacturing facility or an outside supplier?

 

[dsanabria]

Manufacturing is telling me that I should convey FFF or engineering intent. I agree, but I've looked around and haven't found any formats for doing so. I can always make a few notes on the drawings, but that doesn't seem like it will always be practical.

Inventor has a feature called the Engineer's Notebook, but it doesn't appear to output anything that I could send to the shop. They work with pdfs and flat patterns; they don't see the Inventor models.

Any advice or tips on neat ways to include FFF info that doesn't require drawings overflowing with text?

You need the mating part to make it work - notes are useless.

Sheet metal shops have a hard time with prints because half the time the product works but the prints are off...

The FFF is part of contract review with your customer.

 

[hogheavenfarm]

Yup, notes (on the print) should refer to the approved mating part and describe how it should fit, ie "slides without binding", "friction fit", etc. We have asked customers to supply mating parts for these types of items. When we do a Quality review in production planning these are noted as fixtures or jigs required, so that when production starts these things are available.

 

[Hartlus]

Sorry for the late response. I didn't have any luck coming up with a good example.

I'm working with our own manufacturing plant. We have our roles and relationships a bit mixed up right now and FFF is part of untangling them.

Is FFF ever conveyed in anything other than a drawing? I may just have to take a creative in my approach with my drawings. If I come up with a better example, I'll revisit this.

 

[Hartlus]

Thank you for that insight HogHeavenFarm. Responsibility for jigs and fixtures have fallen on me in the past, yet it's supposed to be a job for Manufacturing and Quality. I'm sure I was told to do those things because we presumed that the shop didn't. Understanding what Manufacturing is and isn't responsible for and what processes they use are really helpful for determining what I do and do not need to do for them.

 

[Eredhel]

I missed where this was sheet metal fab related. One shop where I used to work had gap callouts for parts on form dies. But those were controlled by customer specifications for how much pressure is allowed per inches to make that gap happen in tolerance.

It would be hard for me to give you better help without something more specific. But I also understand we can't always share info!