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Design Rules for Additive Manufacturing: Literature Review and Research Categorization

Published

Author(s)

Mahesh Mani, Paul Witherell

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is gaining popularity in industrial applications spanning new product development, functional parts, and tooling. However, due to the differences in AM technologies, processes, and process implementations, functional and geometrical properties of manufactured parts can vary dramatically. Planning, and specifically decisions to select the appropriate AM process and material for specific application requirements, can be rather involved. Manufacturability using AM processes has been well studied; however, there are gaps in the design process catering to the needs of manufacturability. Designers today are challenged with a lack of understanding of AM capabilities, process-related constraints and their effects on the final product. These challenges are compounded by the ambiguity of where design for AM ends and process planning begins. This lack of design and process knowledge can be bridged by design principles and corresponding rules to facilitate more predictable and reliable results when additively manufacturing parts. The purpose of this paper is to categorically present relevant and reported efforts in design and process planning with design rules in AM. The overarching goal of the review is to offer insights to extract fundamental principles for derivative rules for different categories of AM processes. Identifying such fundamental requirements could potentially lead to a breakthrough in designing process.
Citation
International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology

Keywords

additive manufacturing, design rules, design guidelines, category principles, design for additive manufacturing

Citation

Mani, M. and Witherell, P. (2017), Design Rules for Additive Manufacturing: Literature Review and Research Categorization, International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=921515 (Accessed March 29, 2024)
Created August 30, 2017, Updated October 12, 2021