Integrated design-manufacturing decision support for additively manufactured components

Design and manufacturing scenarios have a significant impact on the efficiency of the manufacturing process; therefore, they have to be considered simultaneously in the early design stages. Existing decision support systems are complex and computationally expensive when applied to a large design space, and there is a dearth of tools that evaluate manufacturability in additive manufacturing. Most decision metrics offer solutions that revolve around either productivity or economics while involving significant amount of human interaction increasing the time burden. To tackle the challenge of manufacturability evaluation, we propose an integrated decision metric to enable assessment of the additive manufacturability of components based on both the geometrical information obtained from a component's CAD file and alternative manufacturing scenarios. Resembling the additive manufacturing process, where the part is built layer-by-layer, measurements are performed section-by-section along the part's height. Six sub-metrics are defined and used in the proposed metric; their weighted average is used to obtain an overall design and manufacturing evaluation score. The sub-metrics consider changes in cross-sectional area and center of gravity between consecutive part sections, overall part volume, additive manufacturing process parameters, part's skin surface area, and volume of the required support structure. The developed metric reflects build time and manufacturing cost assisting in the product's design optimization and development processes. The use of the proposed decision metric at the early product development stage reduces the risk of complications during the detailed design, manufacturing, and operation stages. Two examples of jet engine components are used to illustrate the use and benefits of the proposed integrated design-manufacturing decision metric.