Abstract
During product development one important aspect is the geometric robustness of the design. This is due to the fact that all manufacturing processes lead to products with variation. Failing to properly account for the variability of the process in the design phase may lead to expensive redesign. One important tool during the design phase in many industries is variation simulation, which makes it possible to predict and optimize the geometric quality of the design. However, despite the increase in computer power, calculation time is still an obstacle for the wider use of variation simulation. In this article, we propose a new method for efficient compliant variation simulation of spot-welded sheet metal assemblies. The method is exact, and we show that the method leads to time savings in simulation of approximately 40–50% compared to current state-of-the-art variation simulation.