Additive Manufacturing Taxonomy Regarding Product Attributes

In many ways, additive manufacturing (AM) differs from traditional manufacturing in characteristics, benefits and limitations. To fully exploit the AM benefits, it is vital to determine the effect of AM process characteristics on a product's fundamental attributes to assist the designer in making the optimal choices and choosing the appropriate design direction. This article describes a taxonomy of additive manufacturing challenges encountered during the design phase. This taxonomy, which is used throughout the design process, acts as a checklist of manufacturing challenges that may be reviewed at the product definition stage.