Proposal for a Method for Advanced Search of Information and Standards in the Field of Geometrical Product Specification

The Geometrical Product Specification (GPS) is one of the most powerful tools available to link the “perfect” geometrical world of the models to the imperfect world of manufactured parts and assemblies. GPS aims to be an unambiguous common language between designers, process engineers, and Coordinate Measuring Machines operators (CMM) in the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) environment. GPS standards are 150 and further 26 are under development. The need to have a tool to search through the standards, to optimize the work of the designer and to minimize the design, production and control costs is great. A database and the structure for a search engine, called GPS Navigator, has been studied and developed, and the requirements for the following coding phase have also been defined, in order to realize a powerful, efficient, fast, robust and rigorous tool to navigate through the GPS standards. Final aim of this tool is to help and guide the designer to quickly consult the correct standard or the most appropriate set of standards.