Title: Impact of integrative design on additive manufacturing quality

Authors: David M. Dietrich; Elizabeth Cudney

Addresses: The Boeing Company, Boeing Research and Technology, Berkeley, MO 63134, USA ' Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409, USA

Abstract: To move additive manufacturing (AM) into a realm of credible manufacturing, quality evaluation techniques must be established to highlight the potential gains of AM technologies in the field of production quality in terms of dimensional control. This research aims to express the relationship among AM-enabled integrative design and quality evaluation techniques. The methodology proposed is backed by a comprehensive literature review that covers AM dimensional quality and conventional quality assessment techniques for production. The research proposes modelling the positive impact of integrating design using Taguchi’s quality loss function (QLF) and tolerance stack-up models. In addition, the research provides a straightforward way to evaluate AM-enabled integrated designs that promotes the proliferation of AM technology as a sustainable and credible manufacturing method. A case study is presented that describes how to apply Taguchi’s QLF to AM integrated designs.

Keywords: quality evaluation; rapid prototyping; rapid manufacturing; solid freeform fabrication; SFF; additive fabrication; additive manufacturing design; design integration; modelling; Taguchi methods; quality loss function; tolerance stack-up.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRAPIDM.2011.043454

International Journal of Rapid Manufacturing, 2011 Vol.2 No.3, pp.121 - 131

Published online: 18 Feb 2015 *

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