DESIGN FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES: NEW APPLICATIONS OF 3D-PRINTING FOR RAPID PROTOTYPING AND RAPID TOOLING
Year: 2011
Editor: Culley, S.J.; Hicks, B.J.; McAloone, T.C.; Howard, T.J. & Malmqvist, J.
Author: Junk, Stefan; Tränkle, Marco
Series: ICED
Section: Design for X, Design to X
Page(s): 12-18
Abstract
The application of additive manufacturing technologies is becoming established in an increasing number of product development sectors. This allows a number of additive manufacturing technologies to be used quickly and inexpensively for prototypes and also small series. Furthermore, tools can also be manufactured with additive technologies due to the considerable increase in the range of materials which can be used in recent years. For all these applications it is particularly important to take into account also the special requirements for the design in addition to the quick and inexpensive manufacture of the prototypes and components when applying these new manufacturing technologies. Furthermore, the operating principle of these new technologies, with which the material is usually built up in layers, also offers numerous new design options which reach far beyond conventional design. The innovations of the design process, in particular, are worked out for the 3D printing technology and their benefits illustrated in this paper. Besides the technical boundary conditions, the economic advantages and disadvantages in comparison to conventional technologies are also described.
Keywords: RAPID TOOLING; RAPID PROTOTYPING; DESIGN PROCESS; CAD; ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING