Favoring Complexity: A Mixed Methods Exploration of Factors That Influence Concept Selection When Designing for Additive Manufacturing

2021 ◽  
Vol 143 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan Prabhu ◽  
Rainmar L. Leguarda ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson ◽  
Nicholas A. Meisel
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
Stage Design ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Build Time ◽  
Traditional Manufacturing ◽  
Selection Stage

Abstract The capabilities of additive manufacturing (AM) open up designers’ solution space and enable them to build designs previously impossible through traditional manufacturing (TM). To leverage this design freedom, designers must emphasize opportunistic design for AM (DfAM), i.e., design techniques that leverage AM capabilities. Additionally, designers must also emphasize restrictive DfAM, i.e., design considerations that account for AM limitations, to ensure that their designs can be successfully built. Therefore, designers must adopt a “dual” design mindset—emphasizing both, opportunistic and restrictive DfAM—when designing for AM. However, to leverage AM capabilities, designers must not only generate creative ideas for AM but also select these creative ideas during the concept selection stage. Design educators must specifically emphasize selecting creative ideas in DfAM, as ideas perceived as infeasible through the traditional design for manufacturing lens may now be feasible with AM. This emphasis could prevent creative but feasible ideas from being discarded due to their perceived infeasibility. While several studies have discussed the role of DfAM in encouraging creative idea generation, there is a need to investigate concept selection in DfAM. In this paper, we investigated the effects of four variations in DfAM education: (1) restrictive, (2) opportunistic, (3) restrictive followed by opportunistic (R-O), and (4) opportunistic followed by restrictive (O-R), on students’ concept selection process. We compared the creativity of the concepts generated by students to the creativity of the concepts they selected. The creativity of designs was measured on four dimensions: (1) uniqueness, (2) usefulness, (3) technical goodness, and (4) overall creativity. We also performed qualitative analyses to gain insight into the rationale provided by students when making their design decisions. From the results, we see that only teams from the restrictive and dual O-R groups selected ideas of higher uniqueness and overall creativity. In contrast, teams from the dual R-O DfAM group selected ideas of lower uniqueness compared with the mean uniqueness of ideas generated. Finally, we see that students trained in opportunistic DfAM emphasized minimizing build material the most, whereas those trained only in restrictive DfAM emphasized minimizing build time. These results highlight the need for DfAM education to encourage AM designers to not just generate creative ideas but also have the courage to select them for the next stage of design.

Favoring Complexity: A Mixed Methods Exploration of Factors That Influence Concept Selection in Design for Additive Manufacturing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan Prabhu ◽  
Rainmar L. Leguarda ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson ◽  
Nicholas A. Meisel
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
Educational Groups ◽  
Early Design Stages ◽  
Traditional Manufacturing ◽  
Design For Am

Abstract The capabilities of additive manufacturing (AM) open up designers’ solution space and enable them to build designs previously impossible through traditional manufacturing. To leverage AM, designers must not only generate creative ideas, but also propagate these ideas without discarding them in the early design stages. This emphasis on selecting creative ideas is particularly important in design for AM (DfAM), as ideas perceived as infeasible through the traditional design for manufacturing lens could now be feasible with AM. Several studies have discussed the role of DfAM in encouraging creative idea generation; however, there is a need to understand concept selection in DfAM. In this paper, we investigated the effect of two variations in DfAM education: 1) restrictive DfAM and 2) dual DfAM (opportunistic and restrictive) on students’ concept selection process. Specifically, we compared the creativity of the concepts generated by the students to the creativity of the concepts selected by them. Further, we performed qualitative analyses to explore the rationale provided by the students in making these design decisions. From the results, we see that teams from both educational groups select ideas of greater usefulness; however, only teams from the restrictive DfAM group select ideas of higher uniqueness and overall creativity. Further, we see that introducing students to opportunistic DfAM increases their emphasis on the complexity of designs when evaluating and selecting them. These results highlight the need for DfAM education to encourage AM designers to not just generate but also select creative ideas.

scholarly journals Investigating the Gap between Research and Practice in Additive Manufacturing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Bracken ◽  
Zachary Bentley ◽  
James Meye ◽  
Erik Miller ◽  
Jablokow Kathryn W. ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Concept Generation ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Implementation Time ◽  
Design Objects ◽  
Traditional Manufacturing ◽  
Commercial Organization ◽  
Am Processes

Additive manufacturing (AM) provides opportunities to design objects differently than traditional manufacturing methods allow, but only if designers understand the possibilities AM presents. In this study, we examined whether an AM workshop combined with an idea generation session could inspire engineering professionals to use AM solutions to solve current technical problems they face. All subjects were employees at an organization that will be referred to as Company X, a multinational commercial organization based in North America. During the study, we collected ideas for 24 projects generated before and after a training workshop focused on design for AM. In the workshop, we provided three hours of instruction about design for two metal-based AM processes. The participants’ ideas were assessed using four specific metrics: (1) cost, (2) time,(3) completeness of solution, and (4) quality, which was a function of feasibility, usefulness, and novelty. Using these data, we explored whether the workshop was effective in inspiring the participants to use AM methods and techniques from AM research in their concept generation and whether participants’ AM solutions showed improvement in cost, implementation time, and quality over non-AM designs generated before the workshop.

scholarly journals Predicting Part Mass, Required Support Material, and Build Time via Autoencoded Voxel Patterns

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher McComb ◽  
Nicholas Meisel ◽  
T. W. Simpson ◽  
Christian Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Lightweight Design ◽  
Manufacturing Processes ◽  
Dimensional Representation ◽  
Skill Levels ◽  
Experience Levels ◽  
Build Time ◽  
Machine Learning Applications ◽  
Traditional Manufacturing ◽  
Low Dimensional

Additive Manufacturing (AM) allows designers to create intricate geometries that were once too complex or expensive to achieve through traditional manufacturing processes. Currently, Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) is restricted to experts in the field, and novices may overlook potentially transformational design potential enabled by AM. This project aims to make DfAM accessible to a broader audience through deep learning, enabling designers of all skill levels to leverage unique AM geometries when creating new designs. To demonstrate such an approach, a database of files was acquired from industry-sponsored AM challenges focused on lightweight design. These files were converted to a voxelized format, which provides more robust information for machine learning applications. Next, an autoencoder was constructed to a low-dimensional representation of the part designs. Finally, that autoencoder was used to construct a deep neural network capable of predicting various DfAM attributes. This work demonstrates a novel foray towards a more extensive DfAM support system that supports designers at all experience levels.

But Is It Creative? Delineating the Impact of Expertise and Concept Ratings on Creative Concept Selection

2015 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Gosnell ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Selection Process ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Evaluation Methods ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
Expert And Novice ◽  
Human Perceptions ◽  
Novice Designers ◽  
The Impact

While creativity is often stressed in the conceptual phases of design, it is rarely considered during the concept selection process. Before effective methods can be developed to aid in creative concept section, however, differences in the perceptions of creativity between expert and novice designers and the influence of creativity evaluation methods on the process must be considered. Therefore, this paper was developed to address these questions by studying 11 expert and 11 novice designers. Specifically the study was developed to understand if experts' and novices' perception of a concepts creativity aligned, to introduce and compare the utility of our tool for assessing semantic creativity (TASC) to existing creativity evaluation methods, and to identify if our TASC method could be used as a proxy for expert evaluators. Our findings reveal that experts and novices generally had similar perceptions of a concept's creativity and that the TASC method was tapping into similar constructs of human perceptions of concept creativity. The results of this study contribute to our understanding of the factors that influence the selection or filtering of creative ideas after idea generation and provide a framework for research in this field.

scholarly journals MULTI-CRITERIA ASSESSMENT AND PROCESS SELECTION MODEL FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING IN THE CONCEPTUAL PHASE OF DESIGN

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 2197-2206
Author(s):  
Joze Tavcar ◽  
Axel Nordin
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Cost Estimation ◽  
Real Option ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Process Selection ◽  
Conceptual Design Phase ◽  
Traditional Manufacturing ◽  
Cost Awareness

AbstractAdditive manufacturing (AM), which was first applied for rapid prototyping, is now becoming a real option for small-batch production of final products. Further expansion of AM is closely correlated to production costs. AM can only become competitive to traditional manufacturing methods if a product is designed for AM already from the beginning as it is an expensive technology that should only be applied if it adds enough value to the product. The aim of this paper is to increase cost awareness in the conceptual design phase and to support product developers in doing AM cost estimation and process selection. The proposed model integrates design for AM and costs calculation. The input data to the process is preliminary design and design requirements. The main contribution of this paper is the multi-criteria AM function, which enables concurrent consideration of different technical and economical criteria. The multi-criteria AM function helps to compare how AM processing and product design parameters influence the product cost. The holistic overview of different options increases the solution space and enables product optimization in several iterations.

Animal orthosis fabrication with additive manufacturing – a case study of custom orthosis for chicken

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wiktoria Maria Wojnarowska ◽  
Jakub Najowicz ◽  
Tomasz Piecuch ◽  
Michał Sochacki ◽  
Dawid Pijanka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Veterinary Medicine ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Computer Aided Design ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Fused Deposition Modelling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fused Deposition ◽  
Secondary Objective ◽  
Traditional Manufacturing ◽  
Aided Design

Purpose Chicken orthoses that cover the ankle joint area are not commercially available. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to fabricate a customised temporary Ankle–Foot Orthosis (AFO) for a chicken with a twisted ankle using computer-aided design (CAD) and three-dimensional (3D) printing. The secondary objective of the paper is to present the specific application of Additive Manufacturing (AM) in veterinary medicine. Design/methodology/approach The design process was based on multiple sketches, photos and measurements that were provided by the owner of the animal. The 3D model of the orthosis was made with Autodesk Fusion 360, while the prototype was fabricated using fused deposition modelling (FDM). Evaluation of the AFO was performed using the finite element method. Findings The work resulted in a functional 3D printed AFO for chicken. It was found that the orthosis made with AM provides satisfactory stiffen and a good fit. It was concluded that AM is suitable for custom bird AFO fabrication and, in some respects, is superior to traditional manufacturing methods. It was also concluded that the presented procedure can be applied in other veterinary cases and to other animal species and other parts of their body. AM provides veterinary with a powerful tool for the production of well-fitted and durable orthoses for animals. Research limitations/implications The study does not include the chicken's opinion on the comfort or fit of the manufactured AFO due to communication issues. Evaluation of the final prototype was done by the researchers and the animal owner. Originality/value No evidence was found in the literature on the use of AM for chicken orthosis, so this study is the first to describe such an application of AM. In addition, the study demonstrates the value of AM in veterinary medicine, especially in the production of devices such as orthoses.

Build Time Analysis of Additive Manufacturing for Next Generation SLS Systems

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Machado ◽  
Raul Fangueiro ◽  
Daniel Barros ◽  
Luís Nobre ◽  
João Bessa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Selective Laser Sintering ◽  
Material Point ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Efficient Production ◽  
Robust Solution ◽  
Functional Product ◽  
Build Time ◽  
Consistent Solution ◽  
Production Solutions

Abstract With the recent advances in the additive manufacturing (AM) production technologies, AM is becoming more common in today’s industry, nowadays is a normal practice to use this solution either to test a new prototype or to manufacture a functional product. The increase application is mainly due to significant developments in the production solutions of the AM. These recent developments are resulting in an increase search for new and more efficient production solutions. This search is always focused in producing more efficiently, with a greater variety of materials and produce part with better quality and proprieties. From an industrial point of view, one of the types of additive manufacturing that is increasing the percentage of use is the selective laser sintering (SLS) technologies. Although this process was first used in the mid-80’s, it has shown great developments in the recent years. This evolution of the process allowed it to become a solid solution even if it is highly time consuming, especially when compared with other types of addictive manufacturing. From the several aspects that make the SLS a robust solution is the fact that it offers a consistent solution to produce high complex part with good mechanical properties, and also the ability to use many core materials, from polymers, metal alloy, ceramics or even composites materials. Due to the fact that the production of part using SLS technologies takes a long time, shows the relevance to study the entire process in order to quantify the time spent in each stage a very important step. This study can be conducted with two major goals, in one hand to be able to predict the build time needed to complete a predetermined task, and in other hand, to improve the overall efficiency of the process based on the knowledge acquired in the previous analysis. These two aspects are important because they allow the machine operator to choose the production plan more carefully and also to know all the parameters of the process to make it more efficient. In this paper will be presented a survey of the major stages of a SLS process in order to quantify the time consumed in each one of the stages, and if possible, determine solution to reduce the time spent. To better understand the topic the paper will be divided according to the proprieties and time consumed in each of the elements of the process. In other words, it will be divided accordingly to a machine, laser and material point of view. Furthermore, this paper will be focused in the SLS process and the productions based in a polymeric powder, therefore also containing aspects related to the power source used.

Trajectory Planning for Conformal 3D Printing Using Non-Planar Layers

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aniruddha V. Shembekar ◽  
Yeo Jung Yoon ◽  
Alec Kanyuck ◽  
Satyandra K. Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Trajectory Planning ◽  
Industrial Robots ◽  
Complex Geometries ◽  
Robot Arm ◽  
Joint Movement ◽  
Tool Orientation ◽  
3D Objects ◽  
Planar Surfaces ◽  
Build Time

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have been widely used to fabricate 3D objects quickly and cost-effectively. However, building parts consisting of complex geometries with multiple curvatures can be a challenging process for the traditional AM system whose capability is restricted to planar-layered printing. Using 6-DOF industrial robots for AM overcomes this limitation by allowing materials to deposit on non-planar surfaces with desired tool orientation. In this paper, we present collision-free trajectory planning for printing using non-planar deposition. Trajectory parameters subject to surface curvature are properly controlled to avoid any collision with printing surface. We have implemented our approach by using a 6-DOF robot arm. The complex 3D structures with various curvatures were successfully fabricated, while avoiding any failures in joint movement, holding comparable build time and completing with a satisfactory surface finish.

A Novel Method for Providing Global Assessments of Design Concepts Using Single-Word Adjectives and Semantic Similarity

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Gosnell ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Semantic Similarity ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Design Concepts ◽  
Rating Process ◽  
Novel Method ◽  
Design Idea ◽  
Gold Standards

Engineering design idea-generation sessions often result in dozens, if not hundreds, of ideas. These ideas must be quickly evaluated and filtered in order to select a few candidate concepts to move forward in the design process. While creativity is often stressed in the conceptual phases of design, it receives little attention in these later phases — particularly during concept selection. This is largely because there are no methods for quickly rating or identifying worthwhile creative concepts during this process. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop and test a novel method for evaluating the creativity and feasibility of design concepts and compare this method to gold standards in our field. The SCAT method employed in this paper uses word selections and semantic similarity to quickly and effectively evaluate candidate concepts for their creativity and feasibility. This method requires little knowledge of the rating process by the evaluator. We tested this method with 10 engineering designers and three different design tasks. Our results revealed that SCAT ratings can be used as a proxy for measuring design concepts but there are modifications that could enhance its utility. This work contributes to our understanding of how to evaluate creativity after idea generation and provides a framework for further research in this field.

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