COPLANARITY AND SYMMETRY

CORRELATIVE TOLERANCING Correlative geometrical tolerancing refers to tolerancing for the control of two or more features, intended to be correlated in position or attitude.

COPLANARITY
It refers to the relative position of two or more flat surfaces, which are intended to lie in the same geometrical plane. No special symbol exists for co planarity. Either the symbol for position or the symbol for flatness may be used, depending on the type of control required. Fig illustrates a suitable method of tolerancing when one or more surfaces are required to be coplanar with a principal surface, which is then specified as a datum feature. The tolerance controls orientation and flatness of the toleranced surfaces within the same limits. But does not control flatness of the datum feature surface. The position of the surfaces in relation to the base or other features of the part must be separately dimensioned and toleranced, as shown by the 25mm dimension.

Application: In Fig, Coplanar surfaces are also required to be accurately located and parallel to another surface of a part, which is then designated as a datum feature. In this case, the datum and the controlled surfaces must be associated by a basic dimension.

Although the positional tolerance applies separately to each surface, the tolerance zones are of equal width, and are each parallel to and at equal distances from the datum surface. This condition results essentially in one tolerance zone within which the surfaces must lie simultaneously.
The positional tolerance controls orientation and form (parallelism and flatness) of both surfaces within the same limits.

It is sometimes necessary to reference surfaces to a datum system instead of to a single datum surface. This occurs when it is necessary to control coplanar surfaces perpendicular to a datum instead of parallel to it.

Fig shows a case where the coplanar surfaces are required to be

perpendicular to the axis of a hole.

SIMULTANEOUS REQUIREMENTS
If it is necessary to hold co planarity of two or more surfaces within close limits but permit a greater variation in the position of the surfaces in relation to other features of the part, two methods of tolerancing may be used. Both give the same results.

The surfaces may be positioned relative to one another, using the symbol for position, as shown in the Fig 1. Alternatively they may be treated as one flat surface, using a flatness tolerance and symbol as shown in the Fig 2. The word SIMULTANEOUS must be added beneath the feature control symbol. Otherwise the tolerance would apply separately to each surface, and would control their flatness but would not ensure that they were in the same plane. A profile symbol may also be used instead of flatness symbol.

A parallelism tolerance is sometimes used for coplanar surfaces, as shown in Fig. Such a tolerance only controls parallelism and flatness of the surfaces. Their positions may vary anywhere within the tolerance zone for position specified by the toleranced dimension.

OTHER CORRELATED SURFACES

Many features other than flat surfaces may be correlated if they have line elements in a single direction in the same straight or circular line. It is often possible to control such features using controls similar to those applied to coplanar surfaces. Either a positional tolerance or a simultaneous form tolerance may be used, depending on the type of control required. Fig below, gives a few examples.