Design for the combination of additive manufacturing parts with products already developed – An hybrid design approach

The geometric freedom allowed by additive manufacturing (AM) has driven the development of products based on human-centric design through functional and aesthetic customization. The combination of personalised AM parts with products already developed is a disruptive and flexible approach that may create optimized product-user interactions. For this, critical comprehension on the manufacturing process is required to ensure appropriate mechanical connection between the new and existing components of the product. This paper addresses a method for product optimization based on this hybrid design approach. A specific case of a musical instrument that was redesigned for greater ergonomic compatibility with users was considered to describe the sequential development steps.