71. Part Consolidation in Design for Additive Manufacturing: A Two-Level Approach Using Complexity Metrics

Design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) creates opportunities for improved product design. Part consolidation (PC) is an important design opportunity in DfAM. The existing methodologies for part consolidation in DfAM are mostly based on expert judgment or heuristic rules. In addition, they only suggest the candidates for part consolidation. They do not assess the manufacturability of the consolidated parts. This paper proposes a two-level approach for part consolidation using complexity measures at the system level and part level. At the system level, the centrality score (a complex network measure) is used to identify parts with high potential for consolidation, and at the part level, a geometry-based complexity measure—modified complexity factor (MCF)—is used to assess the manufacturability. This two-step approach is expected to improve efficiency and effectiveness in DfAM since it uses minimal information at the system level and detailed assessment of manufacturability is done only for those parts where AM potential is high. Such an approach can be extremely useful to product designers at the early stages of design. Two case studies are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.