New Approach in Design Education for Additive Manufacturing using RC Race Car Models

Today, Additive Manufacturing (AM) is an important part of teaching for the education of future engineers. Therefore, a variety of approaches have been developed in recent years on how to bring the design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) into university teaching. In a detailed literature review, the advantages and disadvantages of the previous approaches are considered and analysed. Based on this, an extended approach is presented in which students analyse and optimize a given product with respect to additive manufacturing. In doing so, the students have to solve challenging tasks in optimization in product development with the help of methodical approaches and practically implement their developed solutions with state-of-the-art additive processes. To work on this task, the students have two different 3D printers at their disposal, which work with different processes and materials. Thus, the students learn to adapt the design to different manufacturing processes and to consider the restrictions of different materials. The assessment of the results from this course is done through feedback and a written survey.