Smart Digital DFM: Manufacturability Analysis for Cloud-Based Design and Manufacturing

Cloud-Based Design and Manufacturing (CBDM) is a service-oriented networked product development model in which service consumers are enabled to configure, select and utilize customized product realization services ranging from computer-aided engineering software to reconfigurable manufacturing systems. CBDM fits into the broader realm of Industry 4.0, the so-called 4th Industrial Revolution concerned with developing cyber-physical systems for production engineering.

To date, Cloud-Based Design and Manufacturing has been tested mainly for digital design and fabrication processes including the usual steps of designing an artefact with a CAD system to then have a prototype manufactured with a “suitable” 3D printer. Unfortunately, a common mishap that can often be observed is that artefacts that look perfectly fine on the CAD computer screen come out severely misshaped on the 3D printer.

A first aspect of this project is to further investigate and document this phenomenon and to explain its root cause, which concerns the data transmitted from the CAD system to the 3D printer (and the respective underlying CAD/CAM data models), inappropriate design features, and a mismatch between geometry requirements and printer capabilities. As more and more entrepreneurs, hobbyists in maker communities, and other not always fully trained individuals pursue their design-an- make ideas (Democratization of Innovation, Design and Manufacture), there is a need for smart computer-based support to facilitate a successful design-to-print process. Such a future Smart Digital DFM assistant might be running in the background and pop up to prompt a designer to modify identified critical areas of a design so that it can be manufactured with a specific printer, or alternatively propose another type of printer available through a cloud-based network that may have the technical capabilities to accommodate the design in its current form.

Key objectives of this project include the development of an IT framework for such a smart agent, the identification, representation and modelling of digital DFM rules and constraints that exist between CAD models and 3D printer models, and the implementation of a corresponding computational approach that allows future CAD systems to analyse CAD geometry with respect to manufacturability on a given 3D printer in real time.

The project requires background knowledge in CAD and Additive Manufacturing. Experience in coding and/or the development of web apps would be beneficial.