No abstract

This study proposes a methodology to identify, evaluate and select parts, components and products within the railway environment that will benefit from the Fused Deposition Modelling Additive Manufacturing technology at the initial conceptual design phase. A review on the state-of-the-art in Multi-Criteria Decision-Making models is presented, focusing on the Fused Deposition Modelling Additive Manufacturing process. The criteria identified in the literature were used to develop a custom evaluation model for part selection specific to railway maintenance applications using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. The proposed methodology is validated using case studies from published literature and then applied to railway-specific case studies to determine its benefit using the Fused Deposition Modelling technology. The railway case studies present functional end-use 3D printed replacement parts, custom tooling and prototype products for railway infrastructure and rolling stock vehicles. Lastly, the proposed methodology was integrated into a program using Visual Basic and Microsoft Excel to assist novice railway engineers in identifying whether parts will benefit from the 3D printing process.