Preproduction Engineering in Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

This study proposes and discusses a methodology for the formation of a list of products for a company or a group of companies recommended to be transferred to additive manufacturing (AM). This methodology covers already manufactured products (parts and assembly units) and products being put into production. With this technique, the entire considered set of products is divided into two subsets—the first consisting of parts and assembly units, which are not economically feasible to be transferred to AM, while for the second set it is potentially beneficial. The second subset is divided into product groups that can be obtained by the same method of additive shaping and using the equipment of the same type. Time priorities can be defined for each group to prepare schedule for planning the transfer of products to AM. It is noted that the production processes of modern mechanical engineering production are inherently additive–subtractive, and it is proposed to consider the operation (or a group of operations) for obtaining the AM workpiece as a separate stage in the product's entire production process. The organizational side of the proposed methodology is based on the creation of an expert group (designers, production engineers, and economists), who jointly assign identification codes to each product of the second set, which indicates whether the product can be produced by AM.