Non-Assembly Additive Manufacturing of Medical Devices

Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, offers a new paradigm for the way functional products are designed, manufactured, and assembled. Its additive nature provides the ability to create complex-shaped parts, without an increase in production time or costs, which would be difficult to produce with conventional manufacturing. In addition,...

(re)assembly: towards a future of automatic reuse and reconfiguration

Improved productivity and a higher level of sustainability are modern day challenges faced by the building industry that are currently being and could further be solved by a higher degree of automation. Freeform architecture is still in its infancy but the demand for it is growing. Reusable building elements are a rarity in freeforms. This...

Developing a Sound Reducing Heat Pump Cover

The heat pump market is growing rapidly and new noise legislation creates issues for many people living in terraced housing and apartments. The assignment was to develop a sound reducing heat pump cover for Qventi. It should reduce the sound sufficiently, while being aesthetically pleasing and easy to assemble. It should also be smaller, lighter...

Creating ocular prosthetics using parametric modelling: Developing an new workflow for the parametric 3D-modelling of ultra-personalized ocular prosthetics

In the Netherlands roughly 20.000 people wear an ocular prosthetic as a consequence of losing their eye due to an accident or disease. An ocular prosthetic is a type of facial prosthesis that replaces an absent natural eye. The main goal of an ocular prosthetic is to provide an aesthetic replacement of a real eye. It does not restore the ability...

Improved production value through organised DFMA: allowing for one big manufacturing step less through redesigning a recreational vehicle fridge

Thetford needs to improve their efficiency to generate more output, make space on their full factory floor for new products and decrease their human dependency at their absorption refrigerator plant in Etten-Leur. The market becomes more competitive and that is why Thetford choose to change its strategy from customer intimacy towards product...

Custom Mouthpieces for Dental Care: Design for manufacturing of custom toothbrush mouthpieces

This thesis covers the design, implementation, and manufacturing methodology of a custom mouthpiece for the automatic toothbrush in development by Dental Robotics. The results are a proof-of-concept digital processing pipeline, a functional prototype, an evaluation of custom mouthpiece efficacy relative to the standard mouthpiece, and a...

Integrated component-support topology optimization for additive manufacturing with post-machining

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to communicate a method to perform simultaneous topology optimization of component and support structures considering typical metal additive manufacturing (AM) restrictions and post-print machining requirements. Design/methodology/approach: An integrated topology optimization is proposed using two density...

Topology optimization for multi-axis machining

This paper presents a topology optimization approach that incorporates restrictions of multi-axis machining processes. A filter is defined in a density-based topology optimization setting, that transforms an input design field into a geometry that can be manufactured through machining. The formulation is developed for 5-axis processes, but...

Combined optimization of part topology, support structure layout and build orientation for additive manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM) enables the fabrication of parts of unprecedented complexity. Dedicated topology optimization approaches, that account for specific AM restrictions, are instrumental in fully exploiting this capability. In popular powder-bed-based AM processes, the critical overhang angle of downward facing surfaces limits...

An additive manufacturing filter for topology optimization of print-ready designs

Additive manufacturing (AM) offers exciting opportunities to manufacture parts of unprecedented complexity. Topology optimization is essential to fully exploit this capability. However, AM processes have specific limitations as well. When these are not considered during design optimization, modifications are generally needed in post...

System robust optimization of ring resonator-based optical filters

Fabrication variations can have a detrimental effect on the performance of optical filters based on ring resonators. However, by using robust optimization these effects can be minimized and device yield can be significantly improved. This paper presents an efficient robust optimization technique for designing manufacturable optical filters based...

A Knowledge Based System to Support Design for Selective Laser Melting

Modern Computer Aided Design/Engineering can assist in the design of highly optimized engineering structures. Such structures allow for a significant reduction on the strain of resources across the product life cycle, where the potential for weight reduction is most beneficial for the aerospace industry. However, their production is currently...

Built-In Measurements in Low-Cost Digital-RF Transceivers

Digital RF solutions have been shown to be advantageous in various design aspects, such as accurate modeling, design reuse, and scaling when migrating to the next CMOS process node. Consequently, the majority of new low-cost and feature cell phones are now based on this approach. However, another equally important aspect of this approach to...

A high-efficiency switch-mode amplitude modulator for class E power amplifiers in nano-satellites

This thesis describes the design, simulation and implementation of a supply modulator to be used in a VHF power amplifier on the Delfi-n3Xt nano-satellite. First, a set of specifications is defined that describe the required functionality. These are derived from earlier work on related systems and confirmed through discussions within the project...