Design For Manufacturing (DFM) has typically meant that designers should tailor their designs to eliminate manufacturing difficulties and minimize manufacturing, assembly, and logistics costs.
However, the capabilities of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies provide an opportunity to rethink DFM to take advantage of the unique capabilities of these technologies:
1) Shape complexity: It is possible to build virtually any shape.
2) Hierarchical complexity: Hierarchical multiscale structures can be designed and fabricated from the microstructure through geometric mesostructure (sizes in the millimeter range) to the part-scale macrostructure
3) Material complexity: Material can be processed one point, or one layer, at a time.
4) Functional complexity: Fully functional assemblies and mechanisms can be fabricated directly using AM processes.
These unique capabilities enable new opportunities for customization, very significant improvements in product performance, multifunctionality, and lower overall manufacturing costs.
In the case of UAVs, AM technology enables low-volume manufacturing, easy integration of design changes and, at least as importantly, piece part reductions to greatly simplify product assembly.