Design for Additive Manufacturing
DfAM is what turns AM from a prototyping trick into a production method. Here's how we teach it, and why it matters.
The foundation
What DfAM actually is
DfAM is designing for the process you're going to use. AM has its own rules — about overhangs, supports, thin walls, heat, and how the part distorts as it builds — and the design has to respect them.
It covers topology optimisation, generative design, lattices, supports, orientation and the post-processing that follows. Get those right and the part comes out lighter, stronger and cheaper than the one you'd have machined.
We teach DfAM the way we use it — hands-on, with real parts and the software you'd use at work.
Topology optimisation
The solver puts material where the loads go and takes it out where they don't. The shape that comes back often looks biological — because nature solves the same problem.
Lattice structures
Cell structures tuned for stiffness, energy absorption, or heat flow. Pick the cell, pick the volume fraction, and the part behaves the way you wanted.
Support strategy
Supports that hold the part without fighting the build or the machinist. Less powder wasted, less post-processing.
Why it matters
What DfAM gives you
Designed for AM, a part stops looking like a milled part with curves bolted on.
Lighter parts
Topology work and lattices take out the mass you don't need, and leave the stiffness where it matters.
Fewer parts
Combine assemblies into one printed part. Fewer fasteners, fewer joints, fewer ways to fail.
Geometry you couldn't make before
Conformal cooling channels, internal flow paths, thin-wall ducts — geometries that are routine in AM and impossible otherwise.
Faster iteration
No tooling. New design on Monday, printed part on Friday. Test, change, test again.
Applications
What it looks like on real parts
A few examples from parts we've printed.
Aerospace brackets
Topology-optimised load-bearing brackets, 50-70% lighter than the machined originals and qualified to fly.
Heat exchangers
Internal channel geometries that move more heat in less volume, and with less pressure drop.
Medical implants
Patient-specific implants with lattice regions where bone should grow in. Structural where it needs to be, porous where it doesn't.
Tooling inserts
Injection mould inserts with conformal cooling that cut cycle time 30-50% and keep the hot spots out of the moulded part.
Get in touch
Want to learn DfAM properly?
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