Design for Rapid Prototyping, Manufacturing and Tooling: Guidelines

Abstract

The design is an important step in the development of a product or component; many important decisions affecting the final cost and manufacturability of the product are made at this stage. Therefore several design guidelines for manufacturing and assembly (DFMA), ergonomics, maintenance, standardization, against corrosion, risk minimization, recycling, among others, have been proposed in the literature. The aim of these design guidelines is to provide designers with guidance to reduce costs, manufacturing difficulties, and increase the lifetime of a product. The use of new manufacturing techniques such as rapid prototyping, manufacturing and tooling (RPM&T) are increasing in the industry to speed up the design and development of products. However, there are not design guidelines for these emerging technologies. This paper focuses on establishing design for rapid prototyping, manufacturing and rapid tooling (DFRPM&T) guidelines. These guidelines are based on reviews and analysis of the operating principle, materials, capabilities and limitations of current commercially available RPM&T technologies. The proposed design guidelines are classified into three types: (1) design for rapid prototyping according to the geometric characteristics of the part, (2) part quality requirements, and (3) part costs and sustainability. Important features such as support structures, overhangs, rounded, knife edges, part orientation, path planning, distortion, shrinkage, warping, accuracy, stability, part post-processing, part cost and environmental resistance are considered in the proposed design for RPM&T guidelines.