Design for Additive Manufacturing

In the coming decades, the growth in AM will likely be driven by production parts that leverage this increase in design freedom to manufacture parts of higher performance and improved material utilization. Contrary to popular opinion, however, AM processes do have their constraints and limitations not everything can be manufactured with AM, and even when it is feasible, not everything should. Design for Additive Manufacturing: Concepts and Considerations for the Aerospace Industry, edited by Dr. Dhruv Bhate, is a collection of ten seminal SAE International technical papers, which cover AM from the perspective of the appropriateness (should) and feasibility (can) of using AM for manufacturing of parts and tooling. Although AM technologies have been around for three decades, many in the industry believe that we are merely at the beginning of the revolution in the design-driven aspects of this technology. Indeed, half the papers in this selection were published only in the past two years, and all but one in the past decade. When it comes to design for AM, it is a safe bet that the best is yet to be.