A systematic design method for additive manufacturing: reconceptualizing product architecture

Redesigning existing parts is challenging without keen insights into capabilities afforded by AM and with the absence of systematic design methods for the early product design stage. Therefore, this study proposes a systematic design method to leverage fully AM design benefits for reconceptualizing product architecture, which leads to consolidate parts and simplify product architecture. The proposed design method consists of four steps to achieve the goal. First, a baseline product architecture should be identified as a starting point of reconceptualization. Second, candidates for reconceptualization are identified by design principles for AM. Third, AM design benefits are recommended by the developed knowledgebase and query language, which can replace functions of the candidates. AM design benefits are applied to reconceptualize existing part design and lead to more efficient product architectures. Lastly, the reconceptualized product architecture is evaluated. To demonstrate usefulness of the proposed method, a case study is performed on an electric motorcycle.