Geometrical Product Specifications (GPS): Enhancing Interdisciplinary Understanding in Teaching

The standards system of Geometrical Product Specifications (GPS) is fundamental to the creation of technical drawings and/or 3D CAD models. It provides a non-verbal symbolic language to geometrically describe and verify components. In addition to the benefits of having a global means of communication between companies, it also brings challenges. Teaching GPS is particularly difficult because the GPS system can be considered complex and there are few teaching approaches [1]. This paper presents an interdisciplinary teaching concept that combines selected GPS content from different areas of mechanical engineering such as design, manufacturing and quality control. This is done on the basis of the GPS competences that teachers and students considered necessary in a previous study at universities in Germany [2]. The developed teaching examples take into account the advancing digitalization in teaching as well as the use of haptic models. To evaluate the results, the content will be used and assessed in a course of the mechanical engineering bachelor's degree with focus on GPS. The aim of this study is also to find out whether the cross-module concept can promote students' interdisciplinary understanding of GPS. Or does the importance of the correlation between functionality, manufacturing and metrology in design work remain intangible? What needs to be optimized for futureoriented teaching in mechanical engineering?