Methods and tools for identifying and leveraging additive manufacturing design potentials

Additive manufacturing (AM) allows the fabrication of complex design solutions and opens up new opportunities for improved products. To identify and optimally leverage these potentials, they must be considered as early as possible in new product development processes. Besides restrictive design rules, design for additive manufacturing (DFAM) thus particularly requires new opportunistic methods and tools in conceptual design and in the first steps of embodiment design. In this paper, AM design complexities and their benefits for new products are thoroughly analyzed and systematized. Many design methods from general design methodology can support the utilization of AM design potentials by their inherent nature of expanding the solution space. A criteria-based evaluation provides the basis for selecting and recommending appropriate design methods in the context of conceptual DFAM. To further adapt these methods to the identified AM design potentials, they are enriched by additional digital and physical DFAM tools. The combination of methods and tools is tested in a workshop environment with DFAM novices and DFAM experts to validate its practical applicability. It is shown that methodological support tailored to DFAM expertise and individual preferences can foster design potential utilization.