Form and function: Functional optimization and additive manufacturing

Abstract

In these last years, with the advent of Additive Manufacturing, a deep review of the design methodologies has occurred. This is mainly due to two reasons: The technological progress and the new manufacturing capabilities that offer designers much greater freedom for the creation of complex geometries; the modern engineering optimization tools that are spreading widely in the industrial design field, and offer new opportunities for searching a compromise between form and function. On the basis of these two reasons, the paper presents some reflections and exemplifications on the changes that new AM technologies, together with the optimization tools, are bringing in the design process.