Considering Part Orientation in Design for Additive Manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is established not only in prototyping, but also in serial production of end-use products. To use the full potential of the production technology the restrictions of current additive manufacturing processes (like support structures in Selective Laser Melting) must be considered in the design process. Especially the compliance with design rules from early design stages on is important in AM serial production, due to production quantities and the resulting scale effect. The part orientation in the build space has a strong influence on many quality characteristics. In order to use the full potential and to consider the restrictions from the start, a design guideline is necessary to support the whole design process.
For this purpose, this paper presents a framework for design guidelines. The framework distinguishes between process characteristics, design principles and design rules; each supporting the designer during different stages of the design process. Furthermore, the paper examines the influence of part orientation in existing design rules and elaborates its importance. Based on this result, the design principle “early determination of part orientation” is presented, which includes a process for determining the part orientation in early stage of the design process.
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In addition, a design process for additive manufactured parts is demonstrated on an extensive showcase, following the guideline framework and including the principle for early determination of part orientation. The presented framework proved to be helpful in the design process and will be used in the future to collect more process characteristics, design principles and rules.