Future key research themes in design for additive manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing (AM), also referred to as 3D Printing, has the potential to transform many industries due to the unique capabilities of the technology. Design for AM (DfAM) research plays a significant role in transforming these capabilities into societal and economic impact. Industrial, product and engineering design research communities are fundamental in developing the knowledge that enables designers and manufacturers to deliver more cost-effective and high-value products through AM. This requires coordination to enable a regular, free and open dialogue between academic disciplines, AM technology developers and suppliers, the professional design community and the industrial user base. DfAM is relevant to a broad range of engineering and science disciplines, this has meant that DfAM has evolved tangentially and in a fragmented manner. Although research groups across a wide range of disciplines benefit heavily from DfAM-based research, they tend not to consider their work as being design-related. Moreover, there is a general lack of communication and coordination between knowledge domains in both industry and academia. Such fragmentation leads to a duplication of effort, a lack of awareness of the progress made in related areas, limited knowledge exchange between different sectors, inefficiencies in the growth of research capacity and crucially in the most effective use of facilities and equipment. Accordingly, as the relevance of DfAM continues to grow, the discipline must develop a more coordinated and unified approach to initiate adventurous multidisciplinary research projects, meet future technological and societal challenges while providing support and reaching out to other disciplines.