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Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies have progressed in the past few years and many of them are now capable of producing functional parts instead of mere prototypes. AM provides a multitude of benefits, especially in design freedom. However, it still lacks industrial relevance because of the absence of comprehensive design rules for AM. Although AM is usually advertised as being the solution for all traditional manufacturing design limitations, the fact is that AM only replaces these limitations with a different set of restrictions. To fully exploit the advantages of AM, it is necessary to understand these limitations and consider them early during the design process. The establishment of design considerations in AM enables parts and process optimization. This paper discusses the design considerations that will lead to optimize part quality. Specifically, the work discusses the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) due to its common use and availability. These considerations are drawn from literature and from experiments done by the authors. The experiments done by the authors include an investigation for the influence of elevated service temperature on the performance of FDM PLA parts, benchmarking the capability of FDM to print overhangs and bridges without supports, studying the influence of processing parameters over dimensional accuracy, and the effect of processing parameters on the final FDM samples modulus of elasticity. The work presents a case study investigating the correct clearances for FDM parts and finally a redesign for AM case study of a support bracket originally manufactured using traditional manufacturing methods taking into consideration the design considerations discussed in this paper.

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The presented work describes the development of an engineering capstone course with multidisciplinary design projects and students’ teams. The course is offered for senior-level engineering students of four majors: those are bio-, environmental, materials, and mechanical engineering. In addition, engineering students can have minors in computer science. Most of the offered projects are sponsored by industrial partners and all are mentored by clients’ representatives and faculty members. The presented paper discusses the implementation of design-based learning approach to integrate the technical engineering design knowledge and the learning skills of interpersonal nature, such as communication skills, adaptability, teamwork, etc. In addition to the discussion of the design-based learning frame application, the paper deliberates over the importance of aligning the learning outcomes and the grading policy with the engineering design phases in engineering capstone design courses. The research objective of this study was to answer the following question: is there a difference in the peer evaluation of capstone design teams between multidisciplinary and single-disciplinary teams in terms of (1) contribution and skills and 2) team satisfaction. The presented work offers preliminary results of team’s satisfaction and performance based on the multi- and single-disciplinary teams. Preliminary findings for those two specific aspects indicate no significant differences in the overall design teams’ satisfaction. However, in terms of the team’s contribution and skills, the multidisciplinary teams scored higher mean values than the single-disciplinary teams.