A method for modularity in design rules for additive manufacturing

Purpose As the technology matures, design rules for additive manufacturing (AM) can help ensure manufacturability, which can be viewed as compatibility between designs and the fabrication processes that produce those designs. Though often informal, current rules frequently provide direct guidelines or constraints for designing AM-destined parts. The aim of this paper is to standardize how design rules are developed and conveyed in AM by presenting design rules as sets of modular components and associated formalisms. Design/methodology/approach The proposed methodology decomposes fundamental geometry, process and material relationships into reusable modules. Independent of context, modular representations can be more easily interpreted and efficiently implemented than current one. By providing task-specific context, components are specialized to represent process-specific parameters for different AM builds and processes. This method of specialization enables designers to reconfigure design rules, rather than create new rules from scratch, thus preserving fundamental AM principles while supporting customization and explicit representation. Findings Modularity and formalisms provide both structure for the generalizations and a means to tailor that structure for a specific process, machine or build. The adoption of principles and formalisms that allow us to modify, extend, reconfigure or customize generalized rules as needed – instinctively and deliberately. Originality/value This method of specialization enables designers to reconfigure design rules, rather than create new rules from scratch, thus preserving fundamental AM principles while supporting customization and explicit representation.