The Potential of Product Customization Using Technologies of Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

The additive manufacturing offers new opportunities for engineering design. Thus, conventional design rules are no longer valid. For the application of the additive manufacturing, relevant constraints have to be taken into account, which result from the process, design, and value chain. To identify the potential of application, a comparison between conventional manufacturing processes and additive manufacturing regarding their advantages and disadvantages is realized. The results are used to evaluate the potential of the technology. Therefore, different demonstrators are analyzed. The investigated products are classified in a matrix, which describes the relation between the lot size and the degree of customization. Thereby, the degree of customization is clustered by a scale, which described six different forms of customization. By the classification of the demonstrators, an area is defined, which described potentially suitable components for additive manufacturing. The final consideration of an example process is based on a machine for brewing tea by using capsules.