But here’s the rub: That default only worked for features of size (holes, shafts). What about a flat surface? No default. What about the angle between two faces? No default. Every drawing was a minefield of unspoken agreements. Japanese suppliers assumed one set of defaults; German suppliers another. When a part arrived from Italy and failed assembly, the argument wasn’t about the part—it was about which standard applied .
This sounds like a minor tweak, but it was a tectonic shift. Suddenly, the drawing had to say everything. No more silent assumptions. The result: clearer communication, but also a massive increase in the number of tolerances on every drawing. iso 8015
But inside, it detonated the old world.
Then came a quiet revolution from Geneva, Switzerland. Its name was . The Old Way: The Silent Assumption Imagine a French aerospace company in 1985. An engineer drafts a simple shaft for a landing gear actuator. He specifies a diameter of ( 50 \pm 0.1 ) mm. He does not specify straightness, roundness, or parallelism. Why would he? The old default said: If no geometric tolerance is given, the size tolerance controls form . This was the Taylor Principle (or Envelope Requirement). The perfect virtual cylinder of the maximum material condition (MMC) would automatically limit how bent or oval the shaft could be. But here’s the rub: That default only worked
Today, if you open any serious engineering drawing for an aircraft turbine blade, a medical implant, or a smartphone chassis, you are looking at the ghost of ISO 8015. It is the silent referee. It is the reason a part made in Shenzhen fits a device assembled in Cupertino. It is the answer to the old machinist’s complaint, "But we’ve always done it this way." What about the angle between two faces
ISO 8015 declared that the Principle of Independency was dead. In its place, it established the —wait, no, the names are tricky. Let's clarify: