Design and Release Process for AM Parts

The paper presents the results of a survey that analyses the additive manufacturing (AM) industry’s application of design and release processes based on a proposed “ideal” release process, which was developed with the knowledge and experience of the Product Lifecycle Management and additive manufacturing (AM) groups at the University of Applied Sciences. This process reflects modern computer-aided design (CAD) tools and their capability, e.g. to add the form and position tolerancing by 3D annotation (product manufacturing information, PMI). As the complexity of additive manufacturing emphasizes the importance of release processes, the requirements of “design for manufacturing” (DfM), especially “design for additive manufacturing” (DfAM), are also considered. Furthermore, the present way of designing AM parts (raw and final part) is reflected. A gap analysis is conducted on the survey results, whereby improvements to close the gap are discussed. This knowledge is used in a running scientific project with an industry partner to offer additive manufacturing services via an internet platform that calculates an immediate and quantity-dependent price offer.