Realised levels of geometric complexity in additive manufacturing

Martin Baumers, Chris Tuck and Richard Hague

International Journal of Product Development, 2011, vol. 13, issue 3, 222-244

Abstract: The emergence of Additive Manufacturing (AM) is seen by many as a promising addition to the existing spectrum of manufacturing technology. Assessing a sample of 43 AM produced components, this paper investigates features of complex part geometry. It is found that the measured levels of geometric complexity approximate the normal distribution. Results indicate several factors promoting complexity: membership of the medical industry, organisational stability and the utilisation of powder bed or polymer vat AM technology. The current paper provides some empirical evidence that AM adoption may lead to advances in product performance for a wide range of applications.

Keywords: additive manufacturing; layered manufacturing; geometric complexity; part complexity; ordinal probit; product performance; product development; complex parts. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=40268 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijpdev:v:13:y:2011:i:3:p:222-244

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Product Development from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().