Design opportunities with rapid manufacturing

The advent of rapid manufacturing (RM) will have profound implications on all aspects of product development and manufacture. Within the design discipline, three areas are of importance, namely, design freedom, material properties and changes to the design process. These issues are currently under investigation as part of an EPSRC funded research project and this paper will outline the effects of RM on the design process with the introduction of RM and give the progress of the project to date.