Direct Manufacturing Design Rules 2.0

Design rules for additive manufacturing processes are important for the acceptance of these technologies and highly required by the industry. Furthermore design rules are necessary to provide and teach the design freedoms and restrictions to users of these technologies as well as to students. Therefore, the project Direct Manufacturing Design Rules (DMDR, 2010 - 2013) had the aim to develop design rules for additive manufacturing processes and to publish them to a broad spectrum of users in science, industry and education.

To reach this aim, a process independent method for the development of design rules was set up. Using this method, design rules were developed for the additive manufacturing processes laser sintering, laser melting and fused deposition modeling. Due to the same methodical proceeding for each considered process, technology specific design rules could be directly compared with each other. Thereby communalities between the processes could be identified. These communalities allowed the development of many design rules that apply for all considered additive manufacturing processes equally.

Within the DMDR project, the machines Eosint P395 (laser sintering), SLM 250HL (laser melting) and Fortus 400mc (fused deposition modeling) were used for the design rule development. For each machine one material with common parameter settings was considered. So, for the laser sintering process the material PA2200, for the laser melting process stainless steel 316L and for the fused deposition modeling process Ultem were used.

However, it is currently unknown in which way the material, the according parameter settings and the machine itself do influence the developed design rules. Therefore, the developed design rules are applicable only for the boundary conditions, which were considered within the DMDR project.

In general, design rules for additive manufacturing technologies, which can be used for training and teaching, need to be applicable for different boundary conditions. Thus, the research project Direct Manufacturing Design Rules 2.0 (DMDR 2.0, 2013 - 2016) has the aim to extend the range of validity for the developed design rules.

Using the method given by the DMDR project, it will be proven if the developed design rules apply for different boundary conditions, too. Different materials, manufacturing machines and parameter settings will be considered.

As a result of the DMDR2.0 project an extended range of validity will be given for the developed design rules. Due to this, the design rules will reach a high level of generality and thereby form a suitable basis for training and teaching.