Correct constructional design - methods and rules

Additive manufacturing technologies have their origin in prototyping. Due to technological characteristics as well as the constant improvement of the component's quality, a trend has been evolved: the use of this technology for components and small series.Thereby, the constructive design of the components plays a major role. This is the only way to take full advantage of this technology in comparison to conventional methods. Constructional design guidelines, as they are in classical manufacturing, are insufficient for an optimal design of the components. Therefore, new strategies must be developed which include specific requirements and possibilities of additive manufacturing technologies. Traditional rules and guidelines must be redefined, reconsidered and partly ignored. This concerns issues like individualization, complexity of components as well as integrated functional elements. The technology also offers new chances for stress-optimized design of components. The paper focuses on the constructional design of plastic components for selective laser sintering. General solution strategies for implementation are shown and specific solution elements exemplarily described. In particular, the production of plastic components with Selective Laser Sintering will be displayed in this paper.