Additive manufacturing (AM) is a cyclic manufacturing process to create three-dimensional objects layer-by-layer directly from a 3D CAD model. Today AM processes like SLM and SLS are already suitable for direct part production. The processes have little restrictions regarding the shape of the object. The challenge to a designer is to use the unique characteristics of additive manufacturing in the development process to create an added value for the manufacturer and the user of a product. This paper presents two design strategies to use additive manufacturing's benefits in product development. A manufacturing driven design strategy allows a substitution of manufacturing processes at a later stage of the product life cycle, while a function driven design strategy increases the performance of a product. The choice of strategy has great impact on the development process and the design of components. Two cases are presented to explain and illustrate these design strategies

The Additive Manufacturing technologies Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and Selective Laser Melting (SLM) are capable to produce thermoplastic or metal parts, which are fit for end-user products. Both technologies create three-dimensional objects directly from a 3D CAD model with little restrictions regarding the shape of the object. This geometrical freedom in design can be utilized to largely improve the functionality of series products by substituting conventional parts with additive manufactured ones. Four criteria are presented here to identify components of a product for a re-design. A successful re-design has to meet the needs of the producer and his customers. The selection criteria and success factors for a re-design are demonstrated in four cases

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is established not only in prototyping, but also in serial production of end-use products. To use the full potential of the production technology the restrictions of current additive manufacturing processes (like support structures in Selective Laser Melting) must be considered in the design process. Especially the compliance with design rules from early design stages on is important in AM serial production, due to production quantities and the resulting scale effect. The part orientation in the build space has a strong influence on many quality characteristics. In order to use the full potential and to consider the restrictions from the start, a design guideline is necessary to support the whole design process.For this purpose, this paper presents a framework for design guidelines. The framework distinguishes between process characteristics, design principles and design rules; each supporting the designer during different stages of the design process. Furthermore, the paper examines the influence of part orientation in existing design rules and elaborates its importance. Based on this result, the design principle “early determination of part orientation” is presented, which includes a process for determining the part orientation in early stage of the design process.In addition, a design process for additive manufactured parts is demonstrated on an extensive showcase, following the guideline framework and including the principle for early determination of part orientation. The presented framework proved to be helpful in the design process and will be used in the future to collect more process characteristics, design principles and rules