This paper proposes interval constraint networks and
interval propagation techniques for automatic tolerance
design. To develop an intelligent automatic tolerance design
mechanism, the following interrelated problems are addressed:
(1) representing the relationships between the tolerances
of the entities, attributes, and the functional requirements
of a design component by a constraint network, (2) developing
tolerance propagation techniques in the network that will
satisfy the constraints between the entities, attributes
and functional requirement. For the purpose of tolerance
design, we propose new definitions for consistency of constraints
and consistency of a constraint network. New forward and
backward propagation techniques achieve worst-case tolerance
analysis and synthesis, respectively. A tank design problem
illustrates the use of the procedures for tolerance analysis
and synthesis. The discussion and examples compare the
new constraint network and propagation techniques with
previous works.