Creating a design for inspectability framework: Investigating dfam heuristics for inspection technologies

Design heuristics created for additive manufacturing (AM) help designers increase manufacturability, reduce waste, and create novel geometries that are generally impossible to create with traditional manufacturing techniques. However, this new manufacturing method has come with its own challenges, specifically for inspection and quality assurance end use parts. Current methods for quality assurance and control are not capable of assessing quality of complex geometries or may be prohibitively expensive for AM produced components. By considering inspection early in the design process, designers can reduce the cost of quality control and prevent expensive redesign associated with non-inspectable components. The Design for Inspectability (DfI) worksheet proposed in the current work serves as a first step towards integrating quality control and quality assurance considerations into early stage design, specifically in the context of AM. The DfI worksheet can be used to assess if a part can be inspected for quality after production and can inform future iterations of design concepts. To determine if the worksheet assists designers in creating a component that can be assessed for quality, a controlled laboratory study was conducted. Findings suggest the worksheet effects design outcomes.