Design for Additive Manufacturing – Supporting the Substitution of Components in Series Products

Abstract

The Additive Manufacturing technologies Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and Selective Laser Melting (SLM) are capable to produce thermoplastic or metal parts, which are fit for end-user products. Both technologies create three-dimensional objects directly from a 3D CAD model with little restrictions regarding the shape of the object. This geometrical freedom in design can be utilized to largely improve the functionality of series products by substituting conventional parts with additive manufactured ones. Four criteria are presented here to identify components of a product for a re-design. A successful re-design has to meet the needs of the producer and his customers. The selection criteria and success factors for a re-design are demonstrated in four cases.

Design for additive manufacturing – a review of available design methods and software

“…This step aims to establish which components would in some sense gain from being manufactured using additive manufacturing Klahn et al (2014) have identified four types of components: 1 components where AM would bring benefits; 2 components where AM could bring benefit but risks and expectations have to be further evaluated; 3 components where no benefits of using AM are expected; and 4 components where AM could not be used as a manufacturing method.…”

Integrated product-process design: Material and manufacturing process selection for additive manufacturing using multi-criteria decision making

“…Klahn et al [24] suggested two kinds of design strategies for AM; 'manufacturing-driven design strategy ' and 'function-driven design strategy '. The former strategy kept in view the manufacturer's perspective which followed certain design rules to mass customize a part by preserving the conventional design, while the latter strategy envisioned the designer's perspective and improved the function of a product as worked upon by Klahn et al [25] for a medical device used in shockwave therapy. Rapid prototyping itself is a great example of utilizing AM's process advantages by considering a part which is designed for conventional production.…”

Design for additive manufacturing based on the axiomatic design method

“…The surface finish of additive manufactured parts can be controlled through the proper selection of process parameters, part orientation and material selection. Furthermore, as indicated by Klahn et al [16], additive manufacturing cannot be considered to replace conventional manufacturing processes, but should be considered when the 9 design goal is to develop products that present either of the following criteria: integrated design, individualization, lightweight design and efficiency.…”