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Manufacturability Assessment

Manufacturability Assessment

Owned by Clément Girard
Jan 16, 2025
2 min read

Manufacturability assessment is baked by HTA 2.0 Research Project supported by Academics and Industries.

In the Report page, below KPI section as headlines, the manufacturability of a part can be assessed thanks to the Manufacturability table.

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Technologies can be selected using the technology selector, which by default displays the most suitable technology for the current part. Other options can be configured via the admin panel, such as displaying certain technologies, setting a preferred technology order, or configuring additional visibility preferences.

Overall Assessment:

The Overall Assessment is a helpful tool that always displays the lowest score from the following checks.

Manufacturability Checks:

The manufacturability checks include several aspects to evaluate a part’s suitability for a given technology:

  • Material Check: This indicates whether the selected technology can work with the part’s material.

  • Size Check: This checks if the part fits within a generic build chamber for the selected technology or if it’s too small for the technology’s resolution. Configurable margins can adjust the results.

  • Overhang/Undercut Check: This evaluates the percentage of overhangs and undercuts on the part. It determines if this ratio will affect production, such as requiring a large number of support structures that add material costs or overhead. It also checks if certain areas are unreachable in the current orientation, which could complicate CNC milling (e.g., if a setup change or multi-axis milling is needed). Admin panel thresholds can adjust this check.

  • Wall Thickness Check: Both additive and subtractive manufacturing techniques are sensitive to wall thickness, with different thresholds depending on the technology. This check identifies areas of the model with thickness below the minimum technology requirement. The admin panel can configure different threshold values to fine-tune results.

  • Holes Check: This detects the number and orientation of holes that may impact production. Technology-specific guidelines exist to help designers adjust their hole designs for better printing feasibility.

  • Aspect Ratio Check: This estimate identifies long and thin parts that may not meet certain technology requirements. This helps avoid problems with certain additive processes (e.g., build plates, tubes, or axles) while ensuring suitability for other CNC processes like lathe machining, laser cutting, or bending.

  • Accessibility Check: This determines if overhangs or undercut areas are accessible for CNC processing.

  • Complexity Check: This assesses how complex a part is to manufacture with the selected technology.

  • Trapped Material Check: Primarily for additive technologies, this check assesses whether material (powder or liquid) can become trapped during the process, which is an undesirable scenario. Designers are warned so that redesign actions can be taken.