3D Printing for Product Designers: Innovative Strategies Using Additive Manufacturing

3D Printing for Product Designers closes the gap between the rhetoric of 3D printing in manufacturing and the reality for product designers. It provides practical strategies to support the adoption and integration of 3D printing into professional practice.

3D printing has evolved over the last decade into a practical proposition for manufacturing, opening up innovative opportunities for product designers. From its foundations in rapid prototyping, additive manufacturing has developed into a range of technologies suitable for end-use products. This book shows you how to evaluate and sensitively understand people, process, and products and demonstrates how solutions for working with additive manufacturing can be developed in context. It includes a practical, step-by-step plan for product designers and CEOs aimed at supporting the successful implementation of 3D printing by stakeholders at all levels of a manufacturing facility, tailored to their stage of technology integration and business readiness. It features a wide range of real-world examples of practice illustrated in full colour, across industries such as healthcare, construction, and film, aligning with the strategic approach outlined in the book.

The book can be followed chronologically to guide you to transform your process for a company, to meet the unique needs of a specific client, or to be used as a starting point for the product design entrepreneur. Written by experienced industry professionals and academics, this is a fundamental reference for product designers, industrial designers, design engineers, CEOs, consultants, and makers.

Jennifer Loy is Professor of Digital Business Innovation at Griffith University, Australia, 3D printing specialist, and a product designer by training and at heart.

James Novak is Senior Research Fellow – CranioFacial Biofabrication at the Herston Biofabrication Institute, adjunct lecturer at The University of Queensland, Australia, and self-confessed 3D printing geek with a background in product design and architecture.

Olaf Diegel is Professor of the Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Lab, at the University of Auckland, in New Zealand, a principal author of the Wohlers report, and an avid product designer.