Purpose This study aims to review the existing methods for additive manufacturing (AM) process selection and evaluate their suitability for design for additive manufacturing (DfAM). AM has experienced a rapid development in recent years. New technologies, machines and service bureaus are being brought into the market at an exciting rate. While user’s choices are in abundance, finding the right choice can be a non-trivial task. Design/methodology/approach AM process selection methods are reviewed based on decision theory. The authors also examine how the user’s preferences and AM process performances are considered and approximated into mathematical models. The pros and cons and the limitations of these methods are discussed, and a new approach has been proposed to support the iterating process of DfAM. Findings All current studies follow a sequential decision process and focus on an “a priori” articulation of preferences approach. This kind of method has limitations for the user in the early design stage to implement the DfAM process. An “a posteriori” articulation of preferences approach is proposed to support DfAM and an iterative design process. Originality/value This paper reviews AM process selection methods in a new perspective. The users need to be aware of the underlying assumptions in these methods. The limitations of these methods for DfAM are discussed, and a new approach for AM process selection is proposed.

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Purpose Additive manufacturing (AM) has been increasingly used in various applications in recent years. However, it is still challenge when it comes to selecting a suitable AM process. This is because the outcome may vary due to not only different materials and printers but also different parameters and post-processes. This paper aims to develop an efficient method to help users understand trade-offs and make right decisions. Design/methodology/approach A hybrid method is proposed to help users select appropriate options from a large-scale and discrete option space in an interactive way. First, the design-by-shopping approach is applied to allow users exploring and refining the option space. The analytical hierarchical process method is then used to capture customers’ preferences. After analyzing the results of different normalization methods, a modified Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) approach is proposed to rank solutions and provide suggestions. Findings The usefulness of proposed method is illustrated in a case study. The results show that it can help customers understand performance distributions and find most suitable options accurately. The ranking of the modified TOPSIS method is more reasonable. Originality/value Due to the complexity of AM technologies, the process selection is considered at the parameter level. A new system framework is proposed for decision support. The TOPSIS method is modified to achieve a stable performance.

Design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) is gaining increasing attention because of the unique capabilities that additive manufacturing (AM) technologies provide. While they have the ability to produce more complex shapes at no additional cost, AM technologies introduce new constraints. A detailed knowledge of the AM process plays an important role in the design of parts in order to achieve the desired print result. However, research on knowledge management in this area is still limited. The large number of different AM processes, their individual sets of critical parameters and the variation in printing all contribute to a high level of uncertainty in this knowledge domain. Applying AM at the early stages of design projects introduces another source of uncertainty, as requirements are often not well defined at that point. In this paper, a knowledge management system using Bayesian networks (BNs) is proposed to model AM knowledge in cases where there is some uncertainty and fill the knowledge gap between designers and AM technologies. The structure of the proposed model is defined here by introducing the overview layer and detailed information layer. In each layer, different types of nodes and their causal relationships are defined. The system can learn conditional probabilities in the model from different sources of information and inferences can be conducted in both forward and backward directions. To verify the accuracy of the BNs, a sample model for dimensional accuracy in the fused deposition modeling (FDM) process is presented and the results are compared with other methods. A case study is provided to illustrate how the proposed system can help designers with different design questions understand the capabilities of AM processes and find appropriate design and printing solutions.

Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing, as an enabling technology for mass customisation or personalization, has been developed rapidly in recent years. Va r io u s design tools, materials, machines and service bureaus can be found in the market. Clearly, the choices are abundant, but users can be easily confused as to which AM process they should use. This paper first reviews the existing multi-attribute decision-making methods for AM process selection and assesses their suitability with regards to two aspects, preference rating flexibility and performance evaluation objectivity. We propose that an approach that is capable of handling incomplete attribute information and objective assessment within inherent data has advantages over other approaches. Based on this proposition, this paper proposes a weighted preference graph method for personalized preference evaluation, and a rough set based fuzzy axiomatic design approach for performance evaluation and the selection of appropriate AM processes.An example based on the previous research work of AM machine selection is given to validate its robustness for the priori articulation of AM process selection decision support.