3D Printing for Repair

An Approach for Enhancing Repair

Journal Article (2023)
Authors

A.A. van Oudheusden (TU Delft - Circular Product Design)

J. Bolanos Arriola (TU Delft - Design for Sustainability)

J. Faludi (TU Delft - Circular Product Design)

SFJ Flipsen (TU Delft - Circular Product Design)

R. Balkenende (TU Delft - Circular Product Design)

Research Group
Circular Product Design
Copyright
© 2023 A.A. van Oudheusden, J. Bolanos Arriola, Jeremy Faludi, Bas Flipsen, R. Balkenende
To reference this document use:
https://doi.org/10.3390/su15065168
More Info
expand_more
Publication Year
2023
Language
English
Copyright
© 2023 A.A. van Oudheusden, J. Bolanos Arriola, Jeremy Faludi, Bas Flipsen, R. Balkenende
Research Group
Circular Product Design
Issue number
6
Volume number
15
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3390/su15065168
Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Abstract

The availability and storage of spare parts are the main barriers to product repair. One possibility would be to 3D print spare parts, which would also enable the repair of products not intended to be repaired. Besides manufacturers, 3D printing spare parts is an interesting option for self-repair by consumers. However, the digitisation of spare parts for 3D printing is a challenge. There is little guidance on how to make a 3D-printed version of the original part. This paper establishes a framework through a literature review and experimental study to describe how to use 3D printing to produce spare parts for repair. Additionally, qualitative data coding was used to find the influence of previous experience, process implementation, and part complexity on the overall success of the 3D printing for repair (3DPfR) process. Our study showed that the 3DPfR process can be described as an iterative design for an additive manufacturing process that is integrated into a repair process. Additionally, it was found that the incorrect implementation of process steps was the most important predictor of the repair result. The steps that were performed incorrectly the most were synthesising design concepts (64%) and validating print quality (also 64%).