Design for Additive Manufacturing (D4AM)

3D printing technologies are sufficiently well-developed that basic printers are almost becoming commodity items. In the main, these technologies are most commonly used as a development or prototyping tool, or by hobbyists for one-off items. The slogan 'if you can imagine it you can make it' has become ubiquitous amongst promoters of these technologies. Claimed advantages include making shapes that were not previously producible, producing near-net shape components at low production volumes, eliminating tooling costs or design change costs, eliminating stock holding or minimum order sizes, reducing assembly effort by component integration, and components which use significantly less material, etc. However, even for experienced designers, the claimed advantages do not match their experiences. Initial optimism is typically followed by disillusionment, evident to designers when they realise that the 'promised land' is not quite as easy to reach as they thought. Far from being 'skill free', designers must develop a new skill-set and knowledge based around advanced 3D modelling and the individual quirks of each printing technology. If designers are to be able to embrace the freedoms offered by these production technologies, then they must approach a design task with a different mind-set than for conventional production method.

This project seeks to aid in this transition, by developing, from first principles, a set of design rules to guide process selection and design optimisation for cost effective Additive Manufacturing (AM). We aim to do this from the perspective of the designer and hope to both challenge the preconceptions that 'anything can be produced' using AM, whilst at the same time convincing sceptical designers that AM can be an economically viable manufacturing option when properly selected and applied. Unlike previous work which has focused on highly specific, very high value components in sectors such as aerospace and surgical implants, this research will embrace the wider field of industrial, product and engineering design as applied to complex, multi-component domestic, professional, industrial and scientific products.

Our aim is to add AM into the designer's menu of manufacturing choices and provide sufficient design guidance to enable the appropriate selection, application and design optimisation of AM parts into complex products in a cost effective manner.

This research will have immediate impact as this first stage is tacking available technologies in the domains of research, industry and teaching.

As an initial project the immediate impact in AM research will involve informing future research in the cost effective application of AM in the design, manufacturing and business disciplines. This research will lead directly to new and more substantial multidisciplinary research proposals.

AM technologies have the potential to be truly transformative to design practice. However, this can only happen if there is widespread uptake by designers beyond prototyping, customised items or artisan products. Our ambition is to accelerate the uptake of AM as an economically viable production process and to provide effective guidance to designers to design components which take advantage of the capabilities of AM technologies. In so doing, we hope to provide strategic direction to future AM technology development, based on the needs of designers. We believe this will be of significance internationally.

As a pilot project, this will lay the foundations for future research proposals, to extend the outputs to include the latest developments in 3D printing technology, to address multiple materials, metals and composite structures. Future work might also address the design potential of other emerging digital production technologies. We also anticipate that the work will feed directly into the PhD activities already underway within the Design for Digital Fabrication research group at Loughborough University and the Design Management Group at Cambridge University.

Results from this study will feed into existing taught courses at Loughborough's Design School and Wolfson School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering as well as the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos at Cambridge University. The design principles and rules will be developed into appropriate teaching resources that will be made available to education and industry partners, including online copyright free documents with associated videos. CAD and/or STL files for test pieces will be shared via online resources. This will be facilitated by a dedicated project website that will continue after this and any subsequent project is completed, a Linked In profile and presence on a variety of online platforms such as GrabCAD, Thingiverse, Cubify and Shapeways.

We anticipate at least two journal papers will result from the work. In addition, to extend the reach of the project beyond academia and into industry the results will also feed into a textbook on design for AM. This book will be published by Springer who have committed to the publication guaranteeing a fast turnaround and publication as soon after project completion as possible.

Impact into industry will be facilitated by presentations at prominent and relevant industry exhibitions and trade shows including for example TCT and Develop 3D in the UK and Euromold in Germany. These activities will continue well beyond the funding period. Engagement with industry will also be facilitated by the website and online presence (e.g. Linked In) and through engagement with industry bodies and existing communication channels in AM including industry periodicals such as The Engineer, TCT and Develop 3D but also through online AM media.

Finally, after project completion, both Universities will proactively seek industry partners through KTP schemes with design consultancies and SMEs. This will enable knowledge transfer of the results but also new opportunities to develop and refine design rules and produce more case studies and reference data to support future research.