A new design for additive manufacturing method: applied on the bound metal deposition process

To the best of our knowledge, most of the design methods that are currently used in the field of additive manufacturing only consider the final part, rather than the manufacturing process. Furthermore, these methods are less efficient when the bound metal deposition (BMD) process is used. We, therefore, came up with a new additive manufacturing design method specifically for BMD. This 6-step method allows designers to collect all the specs, optimise the part, and iteratively choose the best design, using the analytical hierarchy process. We assessed the performance of our new method using an aircraft canopy lever as a case study. Results indicated that it markedly outperformed conventional design methods, by allowing for a 27% reduction in mass, a 34% price reduction, and a 35% decrease in manufacturing time. Our promising methodology could enhance the use of BMD and, more broadly, the use of additive manufacturing. In the next step, this procedure will be further improved by defining and integrating other additive manufacturing process rules, depending on which process is used.