Manufacturing & Production Research
Evidence you can design with
How something is made shapes what it can be. Manufacturing research tells designers which geometries are producible, which tolerances are realistic, and where cost and quality actually come from.
This collection covers additive manufacturing and 3D printing, injection moulding and casting, CNC machining and laser processes, joining and assembly, design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA), tolerance and quality control, and the economics of batch versus mass production.
Summaries note the process parameters tested, since manufacturing results rarely generalise across machines and materials.
Questions this research helps answer
- Which process parameters drive part quality?
- When does additive manufacturing beat conventional tooling?
- How do assembly decisions affect defect rates?
Manufacturing research on DesignDex covers additive manufacturing, injection moulding, CNC machining, design for manufacture, tolerances, quality control. Part of 8 design research topics.