Article
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Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Exploring an AM-Enabled Combination-of-Functions Approach for Modular Product Design
Version 1
: Received: 21 September 2018 / Approved: 21 September 2018 / Online: 21 September 2018 (15:23:15 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Chadha, C.; Crowe, K.A.; Carmen, C.L.; Patterson, A.E. Exploring an AM-Enabled Combination-of-Functions Approach for Modular Product Design. Designs 2018, 2, 37. Chadha, C.; Crowe, K.A.; Carmen, C.L.; Patterson, A.E. Exploring an AM-Enabled Combination-of-Functions Approach for Modular Product Design. Designs 2018, 2, 37.
Abstract
This work explores an additive-manufacturing-enabled combination-of-function approach for design of modular products. AM technologies allow the design and manufacturing of nearly free-form geometry, which can be used to create more complex, multi-function or multi-feature parts. The approach presented here replaces sub-assemblies within a modular product or system with more complex single parts that are designed and manufactured using AM technologies. This approach can increase the reliability of systems and products by reducing the number of interfaces, as well as allowing the optimization of the more complex parts during the design. The smaller part count and the ability of users to replace or upgrade the system or product parts on-demand should reduce user risk, life-cycle costs, and prevent obsolescence for the user of many systems. This study presents a detailed review on the current state-of-the-art in modular product design in order to demonstrate the place, need and usefulness of this AM-enabled method for systems and products that could benefit from it. A detailed case study is developed and presented to demonstrate the concepts.
Keywords
Additive manufacturing; modular design; design-for-manufacturability; sustainable design; design optimization; product re-design
Subject
Engineering, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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