Design Issues and Orientations in Additive Manufacturing

Journal articles, conferences, TV programs and books are now flooding the academic and popular market about Additive Manufacturing, commonly labelled 3D printing. In the context of Product Design, as distinct from engineering, this article focuses on design issues when considering using Additive Manufacturing technology in new product development or improving existing products. Offered is a detailed scope of the designer’s role in product development using Additive Manufacturing technology. This is realised 1) as representations (prototypes, mock-ups, scaled-models etc.); 2) through manufacturing (tools, jigs, stencils etc.); and, 3) as manufactured artefacts (sunglasses, etc.). In addition, an approach to designing for both New Product Development and improvement of existing products is presented. This approach, called AICE (Adapt, Integrate, Compensate, Elongate), is elaborated and exemplified, giving guidelines to designers, engineers and makers. The article closes by reflecting on the implications of such an approach for the further development of design centred perspectives on Additive Manufacturing, moving dominant disciplinary discourses towards product design, development and analysis to complement the burgeoning attention to tools, material and production.