Favoring Complexity: A Mixed Methods Exploration of Factors That Influence Concept Selection in Design for Additive Manufacturing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan Prabhu ◽  
Rainmar L. Leguarda ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson ◽  
Nicholas A. Meisel
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
Educational Groups ◽  
Early Design Stages ◽  
Traditional Manufacturing ◽  
Design For Am

Abstract The capabilities of additive manufacturing (AM) open up designers’ solution space and enable them to build designs previously impossible through traditional manufacturing. To leverage AM, designers must not only generate creative ideas, but also propagate these ideas without discarding them in the early design stages. This emphasis on selecting creative ideas is particularly important in design for AM (DfAM), as ideas perceived as infeasible through the traditional design for manufacturing lens could now be feasible with AM. Several studies have discussed the role of DfAM in encouraging creative idea generation; however, there is a need to understand concept selection in DfAM. In this paper, we investigated the effect of two variations in DfAM education: 1) restrictive DfAM and 2) dual DfAM (opportunistic and restrictive) on students’ concept selection process. Specifically, we compared the creativity of the concepts generated by the students to the creativity of the concepts selected by them. Further, we performed qualitative analyses to explore the rationale provided by the students in making these design decisions. From the results, we see that teams from both educational groups select ideas of greater usefulness; however, only teams from the restrictive DfAM group select ideas of higher uniqueness and overall creativity. Further, we see that introducing students to opportunistic DfAM increases their emphasis on the complexity of designs when evaluating and selecting them. These results highlight the need for DfAM education to encourage AM designers to not just generate but also select creative ideas.

Favoring Complexity: A Mixed Methods Exploration of Factors That Influence Concept Selection When Designing for Additive Manufacturing

2021 ◽  
Vol 143 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan Prabhu ◽  
Rainmar L. Leguarda ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson ◽  
Nicholas A. Meisel
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
Stage Design ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Build Time ◽  
Traditional Manufacturing ◽  
Selection Stage

Abstract The capabilities of additive manufacturing (AM) open up designers’ solution space and enable them to build designs previously impossible through traditional manufacturing (TM). To leverage this design freedom, designers must emphasize opportunistic design for AM (DfAM), i.e., design techniques that leverage AM capabilities. Additionally, designers must also emphasize restrictive DfAM, i.e., design considerations that account for AM limitations, to ensure that their designs can be successfully built. Therefore, designers must adopt a “dual” design mindset—emphasizing both, opportunistic and restrictive DfAM—when designing for AM. However, to leverage AM capabilities, designers must not only generate creative ideas for AM but also select these creative ideas during the concept selection stage. Design educators must specifically emphasize selecting creative ideas in DfAM, as ideas perceived as infeasible through the traditional design for manufacturing lens may now be feasible with AM. This emphasis could prevent creative but feasible ideas from being discarded due to their perceived infeasibility. While several studies have discussed the role of DfAM in encouraging creative idea generation, there is a need to investigate concept selection in DfAM. In this paper, we investigated the effects of four variations in DfAM education: (1) restrictive, (2) opportunistic, (3) restrictive followed by opportunistic (R-O), and (4) opportunistic followed by restrictive (O-R), on students’ concept selection process. We compared the creativity of the concepts generated by students to the creativity of the concepts they selected. The creativity of designs was measured on four dimensions: (1) uniqueness, (2) usefulness, (3) technical goodness, and (4) overall creativity. We also performed qualitative analyses to gain insight into the rationale provided by students when making their design decisions. From the results, we see that only teams from the restrictive and dual O-R groups selected ideas of higher uniqueness and overall creativity. In contrast, teams from the dual R-O DfAM group selected ideas of lower uniqueness compared with the mean uniqueness of ideas generated. Finally, we see that students trained in opportunistic DfAM emphasized minimizing build material the most, whereas those trained only in restrictive DfAM emphasized minimizing build time. These results highlight the need for DfAM education to encourage AM designers to not just generate creative ideas but also have the courage to select them for the next stage of design.

Design Fixation and Its Mitigation: A Study on the Role of Expertise

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vimal K. Viswanathan ◽  
Julie S. Linsey
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Problem ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Design Fixation ◽  
Novice Designers ◽  
Novel Products

Engineering idea generation plays a vital role in the development of novel products. Prior studies have shown that designers fixate to the features of example solutions and replicate these features in their ideas. This type of fixation acts as a major hindrance in idea generation, as it restricts the solution space where designers search for their ideas. Building upon the study by Linsey et al. [2010, “A Study of Design Fixation, Its Mitigation and Perception in Engineering Design Faculty,” ASME Trans. J. Mech. Des., 132, 041003], this study hypothesizes that designers fixate to example features and this fixation can be mitigated using certain defixation materials including alternate representations of the design problem. To investigate this, the experiment conducted by Linsey et al. [2010] with engineering design faculty is replicated with novice designers. Participants generate ideas for a design problem in three groups: one group working with a fixating example, a second group working with the same example along with alternate representations of the design problem and a control group. The obtained results show that both the novice designers and design faculty fixate to the same extent, whereas the defixation materials have differential effect on the two groups. This result indicates that design researchers need to be very careful in developing methods and guidelines that are formulated and tested with studies on novice designers. The effectiveness of such measures may vary with the level of expertise of the designer.

A Study on the Role of Expertise in Design Fixation and its Mitigation

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vimal Viswanathan ◽  
Julie Linsey
Keyword(s):  
Design Problem ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Design Fixation ◽  
Novice Designers ◽  
Novel Products

Engineering idea generation plays a vital role in the development of novel products. Prior studies have shown that designers fixate to the features of example solutions and replicate these features in their ideas. This is a major hindrance in idea generation as it restricts the solution space where designers search for their ideas. This study hypothesizes that though expert designers fixate to example features, they still can outperform novices in terms of quantity of ideas as they have a larger set of knowledge acquired through their experience. To investigate this, the experimental by Linsey et al. is replicated for novice designers. Novices generate ideas for a design problem in three groups: one group working with a fixating example, a second group working with the same example along with alternate representations for the design problem and a control group only presented with the problem and no additional materials. The obtained results support the hypothesis. Both novice and expert designers are fixated to the example features, but the expert designers generated more nonredundant ideas. The alternate representations of the design problem help experts in mitigating their fixation, whereas in novices, these have no effect.

scholarly journals Investigating the Gap between Research and Practice in Additive Manufacturing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Bracken ◽  
Zachary Bentley ◽  
James Meye ◽  
Erik Miller ◽  
Jablokow Kathryn W. ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Concept Generation ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Implementation Time ◽  
Design Objects ◽  
Traditional Manufacturing ◽  
Commercial Organization ◽  
Am Processes

Additive manufacturing (AM) provides opportunities to design objects differently than traditional manufacturing methods allow, but only if designers understand the possibilities AM presents. In this study, we examined whether an AM workshop combined with an idea generation session could inspire engineering professionals to use AM solutions to solve current technical problems they face. All subjects were employees at an organization that will be referred to as Company X, a multinational commercial organization based in North America. During the study, we collected ideas for 24 projects generated before and after a training workshop focused on design for AM. In the workshop, we provided three hours of instruction about design for two metal-based AM processes. The participants’ ideas were assessed using four specific metrics: (1) cost, (2) time,(3) completeness of solution, and (4) quality, which was a function of feasibility, usefulness, and novelty. Using these data, we explored whether the workshop was effective in inspiring the participants to use AM methods and techniques from AM research in their concept generation and whether participants’ AM solutions showed improvement in cost, implementation time, and quality over non-AM designs generated before the workshop.

Fresh in My Mind! Investigating the Effects of the Order of Presenting Opportunistic and Restrictive Design for Additive Manufacturing Content on Creativity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan Prabhu ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson ◽  
Nicholas A. Meisel
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Manufacturing Processes ◽  
Design For Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Traditional Manufacturing ◽  
Order Of Presentation ◽  
Am Processes ◽  
Design For Am

Abstract Additive manufacturing (AM) processes present designers with creative freedoms beyond the capabilities of traditional manufacturing processes. However, to successfully leverage AM, designers must balance their creativity against the limitations inherent in these processes to ensure the feasibility of their designs. This feasible adoption of AM can be achieved if designers learn about and apply opportunistic and restrictive design for AM (DfAM) techniques at appropriate stages of the design process. Researchers have demonstrated the effect of the order of presentation of information on the learning and retrieval of said information; however, there is a need to explore this effect within DfAM education. In this paper, we explore this gap through an experimental study involving 195 undergraduate engineering students. Specifically, we compare two variations in DfAM education: (1) opportunistic DfAM followed by restrictive DfAM, and (2) restrictive DfAM followed by opportunistic DfAM, against only opportunistic DFAM and only restrictive DfAM training. These variations are compared through (1) differences in participants’ DfAM self-efficacy, (2) their self-reported DfAM use, and (3) the creativity of their design outcomes. From the results, we see that only students trained in opportunistic DfAM, with or without restrictive DfAM, present a significant increase in their opportunistic DfAM self-efficacy. However, all students trained in DfAM — opportunistic, restrictive, or both — demonstrated an increase in their restrictive DfAM self-efficacy. Further, we see that teaching restrictive DfAM first followed by opportunistic DfAM results in the generation of ideas with greater creativity — a novel research finding. These results highlight the need for educators to account for the effects of the order of presenting content to students, especially when educating students about DfAM.

Investigating the Role of Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing in Additive Manufacturing

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaurav Ameta ◽  
Robert Lipman ◽  
Shawn Moylan ◽  
Paul Witherell
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Tolerance Analysis ◽  
Geometric Accuracy ◽  
Geometric Dimensioning And Tolerancing ◽  
Dimensioning And Tolerancing ◽  
Internal Cavities ◽  
Functional Features ◽  
Traditional Manufacturing ◽  
Am Processes

Additive manufacturing (AM) has increasingly gained attention in the last decade as a versatile manufacturing process for customized products. AM processes can create complex, freeform shapes while also introducing features, such as internal cavities and lattices. These complex geometries are either not feasible or very costly with traditional manufacturing processes. The geometric freedoms associated with AM create new challenges in maintaining and communicating dimensional and geometric accuracy of parts produced. This paper reviews the implications of AM processes on current geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) practices, including specification standards, such as ASME Y14.5 and ISO 1101, and discusses challenges and possible solutions that lie ahead. Various issues highlighted in this paper are classified as (a) AM-driven specification issues and (b) specification issues highlighted by the capabilities of AM processes. AM-driven specification issues may include build direction, layer thickness, support structure related specification, and scan/track direction. Specification issues highlighted by the capabilities of AM processes may include region-based tolerances for complex freeform surfaces, tolerancing internal functional features, and tolerancing lattice and infills. We introduce methods to address these potential specification issues. Finally, we summarize potential impacts to upstream and downstream tolerancing steps, including tolerance analysis, tolerance transfer, and tolerance evaluation.

But Is It Creative? Delineating the Impact of Expertise and Concept Ratings on Creative Concept Selection

2015 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Gosnell ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Selection Process ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Evaluation Methods ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
Expert And Novice ◽  
Human Perceptions ◽  
Novice Designers ◽  
The Impact

While creativity is often stressed in the conceptual phases of design, it is rarely considered during the concept selection process. Before effective methods can be developed to aid in creative concept section, however, differences in the perceptions of creativity between expert and novice designers and the influence of creativity evaluation methods on the process must be considered. Therefore, this paper was developed to address these questions by studying 11 expert and 11 novice designers. Specifically the study was developed to understand if experts' and novices' perception of a concepts creativity aligned, to introduce and compare the utility of our tool for assessing semantic creativity (TASC) to existing creativity evaluation methods, and to identify if our TASC method could be used as a proxy for expert evaluators. Our findings reveal that experts and novices generally had similar perceptions of a concept's creativity and that the TASC method was tapping into similar constructs of human perceptions of concept creativity. The results of this study contribute to our understanding of the factors that influence the selection or filtering of creative ideas after idea generation and provide a framework for research in this field.

scholarly journals High-Throughput Statistical Interrogation of Mechanical Properties with Build Plate Location and Powder Reuse in AlSi10Mg

JOM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay D. Carroll ◽  
Andrea N. Exil ◽  
Stephanie A. DeJong ◽  
Isaac A. Valdez ◽  
Christopher M. Laursen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
High Throughput ◽  
Mechanical Response ◽  
Tensile Tests ◽  
Tensile Specimen ◽  
Powder Bed ◽  
Weibull Statistical Analysis ◽  
Plate Location ◽  
Traditional Manufacturing

AbstractAdditive manufacturing (AM) allows agile, rapid manufacturing of geometrically complex components that would otherwise be impossible through traditional manufacturing methods. With this maturing manufacturing technology comes the need to adopt testing methods that are commensurate with the speed of additive manufacturing and take advantage of its geometric flexibility. High-throughput tensile testing (HTT) is a technique that allows a large number of tensile bars to be tested in a short amount of time. In the present study, HTT is used to evaluate AM AlSi10Mg produced using powder bed fusion with a Renishaw AM250 machine. Three parameters were varied in this study: (1) powder reuse history, (2) location on the build plate, and (3) size of the tensile specimen. For all parameter combinations, at least 22 specimens were tested; in several cases, over 40 were tested. This large dataset, consisting of over 500 tensile tests, permits Weibull statistical analysis and provides sufficient fidelity to isolate subtle trends that would have likely been missed in smaller, traditional datasets. The observed trends are rationalized in terms of the role of porosity and surface crust on mechanical response.

scholarly journals MULTI-CRITERIA ASSESSMENT AND PROCESS SELECTION MODEL FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING IN THE CONCEPTUAL PHASE OF DESIGN

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 2197-2206
Author(s):  
Joze Tavcar ◽  
Axel Nordin
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Cost Estimation ◽  
Real Option ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Process Selection ◽  
Conceptual Design Phase ◽  
Traditional Manufacturing ◽  
Cost Awareness

AbstractAdditive manufacturing (AM), which was first applied for rapid prototyping, is now becoming a real option for small-batch production of final products. Further expansion of AM is closely correlated to production costs. AM can only become competitive to traditional manufacturing methods if a product is designed for AM already from the beginning as it is an expensive technology that should only be applied if it adds enough value to the product. The aim of this paper is to increase cost awareness in the conceptual design phase and to support product developers in doing AM cost estimation and process selection. The proposed model integrates design for AM and costs calculation. The input data to the process is preliminary design and design requirements. The main contribution of this paper is the multi-criteria AM function, which enables concurrent consideration of different technical and economical criteria. The multi-criteria AM function helps to compare how AM processing and product design parameters influence the product cost. The holistic overview of different options increases the solution space and enables product optimization in several iterations.

Two Short Tests Fail to Detect Vigilance Decrements

2001 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Botella ◽  
María José Contreras ◽  
Pei-Chun Shih ◽  
Víctor Rubio
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Vigilance Task ◽  
Air Traffic Controllers ◽  
Job Selection ◽  
Performance Deterioration ◽  
Short Test ◽  
Psychological Dimensions

Summary: Deterioration in performance associated with decreased ability to sustain attention may be found in long and tedious task sessions. The necessity for assessing a number of psychological dimensions in a single session often demands “short” tests capable of assessing individual differences in abilities such as vigilance and maintenance of high performance levels. In the present paper two tasks were selected as candidates for playing this role, the Abbreviated Vigilance Task (AVT) by Temple, Warm, Dember, LaGrange and Matthews (1996) and the Continuous Attention Test (CAT) by Tiplady (1992) . However, when applied to a sample of 829 candidates in a job-selection process for air-traffic controllers, neither of them showed discriminative capacity. In a second study, an extended version of the CAT was applied to a similar sample of 667 subjects, but also proved incapable of properly detecting individual differences. In short, at least in a selection context such as that studied here, neither of the tasks appeared appropriate for playing the role of a “short” test for discriminating individual differences in performance deterioration in sustained attention.

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