DfAM eSeries: Your playbook for AM: How to train for the big game with DfAM

John Barnes, The Barnes Global Advisors

Watch this presentation by John Barnes go over how Additive Manufacturing (AM) is usually a firm’s “Hail Mary” when they’ve exhausted all other viable means to meet requirements. This discussion will explore the concept of Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) and why everyone uses the term but only 30% define it the same way. Inherent in our bias is the possible inclusion of “Post Processing” into DfAM, which most industries would simply call “processing”. When we explore why that is, we see that a lot of people think about ‘Design for 3D Printing’ which means only looking at the “build” portion of the value chain. Secondly, this discussion will explore the design flexibility by contrasting the description of “Restrictive Design” and “Opportunistic Design”. By the end, there will likely be a lot of football puns and analogies but mostly to try to get the point across that we have requirements to meet and in order to get across the goal line, we must design a play accordingly and not audible for a miracle. The presentation will include input from Dr. Tim Simpson and Ms. Chelsea Cummings from TBGA.