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Design Innovation With Additive Manufacturing: A Methodology
Design Innovation With Additive Manufacturing: A Methodology
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4 authors:
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
Product Redesign, Product Evolution, Design for Assembly, Reverse Engineering View project
All content following this page was uploaded by Kristin Lee Wood on 18 October 2019.
DETC2019-97400
1
Current affiliation is with nTopology in New York, NY, USA
2
Contact author: carlye_lauff@sutd.edu.sg
FIGURE 1: High Level AM Innovation Areas: Products, Business Models, Design Processes, and AM Technologies
TABLE 1: Examples of Design Innovation (DI) and Design with Additive Manufacturing (DIwAM) Methods
FIGURE 4: (a) Design Innovation with Additive Manufacturing (DIwAM) Process Map on left;
(b) Case Study DIwAM – Rocket Fuel Grain and Composite Printer Process Journey on right
4. CASE STUDY USING DIwAM Through the ideation process the team referenced the AM
This section describes how these curated design methods are Design Principles, and then had an insight that AM could be used
pulled together and implemented in a full DI with AM process, to produce a two-part solid fuel grain. While a two-part solid fuel
and summary of the case study is shown in Figure 4b. The grain is not itself novel, the ability to control the distribution of
example uses the design and development of a rocket fuel grain the two materials voxel-by-voxel is an innovative solution
printer for the manufacture of hybrid rocket fuel grains (HRFGs) enable by AM. This insight led to the creation of a HRFG burn
executed by a collaborative design team from the SUTD-MIT simulator, as published by Anderson [67], to understand how
IDC and Gilmour Space Technologies. One might expect this burn rates could be modelled. The concept was that if the burn
section to follow a 4-section format with sections for each of the rate of a two-part fuel grain and oxidizer could be modelled, the
four D’s in DI, however there is significant iteration between the model could also be used as a means to design and optimize the
different phases. As a result, the following section follows the DI fuel grains to provide a specific burn and thrust profile for a
process for the hybrid rocket fuel grains chronologically. A rocket. This concept and exploration were uniquely enabled by
design signature (Figure 5 from Teo et al. [66]) and process AM given that previous attempts towards two-part fuel grains
journey map (Figure 4b) are provided to help the reader orient cited manufacturing issues with such an approach since HRFGs
themselves to the process. A design signature is a visual way to are typically manufacturing using a casting process.
see the division of time and methods during the 4D DI process At this point, the team opted to move forward with
[66]. Figure 5 is divided into four quadrants that represent the developing a new hybrid AM process that could produce large-
four stages of the DI process: Discover, Define, Develop, scale material extrusion polymer parts combined with a second
Deliver. The project starts at the origin and tracks the design viscous material. The team settled on a system architecture and
methods and activities chronologically until project completion. chose various systems to prototype, such as the material
Design signatures are currently mapped retrospectively in order deposition system for the viscous phase, the burn simulator, and
to understand the amount of time spent in each stage and which the large area gantry system. Once these items were prototyped
design methods were used. and tested, another ideation activity was performed using the c-
The original design problem was the fabrication of hybrid sketch method to think about how these components could be
rocket fuel grains (HRFGs) for the propulsion system of a low integrated. C-sketch was particularly useful because it allowed
earth orbit launch vehicle. Hybrid rockets use a solid fuel “grain” the team to abstract the details of the individual subsystems and
in the motor that reacts with a liquid or gaseous oxidizer to think about their interfaces as a total system.
produce thrust. The project team was tasked with developing a A mock-up of the system was created to continue to better
means for fabricating these fuel grains. understand the subsystem interfaces and parallel prototypes were
The team conducted interviews with the engineering created to assess design decisions like gantry configuration.
partners to better understand the problem and develop a set of Once the subsystems and interface configurations were finalized,
requirements for the system. Using the AM opportunity vectors, the architecture was settled and prototyped iteratively (four
the team realized that AM could be a potential avenue for times) to create a functioning fuel grain printer. The printer was
innovative solutions. To assess this opportunity, the team looked functional, however, not final. The final prototype generated a
for previous examples of AM being used in the production of number of unknown unknowns that would eventually need to be
HRFGs. solved in the final system. The elicitation of such ‘unknown