A Case Study in Component Redesign for Additive Manufacturing Process Workflows

Additive manufacturing (AM) has matured beyond limited use-cases in rapid prototyping into a process capable of competing with conventional manufacturing methods in the production of end-use components. As such, many manufacturers are evaluating candidate products for redesign for AM, with interest in improving component performance, streamlining manufacturing, and reducing costs. In this study, the authors argue for systematic use of opportunistic design tools such as generative design and for the inclusion of restrictions imposed by the entire manufacturing process workflow to be included in the design process. Emphasis is placed on how secondary processing steps, that is, those other than the primary AM process, inform design. A bicycle stem is used as an exemplar case study of component redesign for AM. Generative design is used to optimize the component’s weight given the design constraints. An end-to-end manufacturing process chain is consequently developed and analyzed for viability, covering design for additive manufacturing (DFAM) and post processing. Through this comprehensive case study, it is shown that significant weight savings, greater than 25% in the present case, can be achieved through the DFAM process. Guidelines from the DFAM process are generalized for application to further cases.Mechanical Engineerin