Design for X: Developing parts with different variables in mind can help you meet your product life cycle goals

Design for Product Life Cycle

Nimble digital manufacturers can help you optimize manufacturing services throughout the life of your product. These days, product life cycles continue to shrink, driven by electronics, customization, customer taste, constant model upgrades, competition, and more. Accordingly, digital manufacturing's quick-turn and low-volume capabilities are responsive at all stages: the multiple iterations during prototyping, the eventual launch of the product, then the growth and maturity of that product, all the way to the product's decline and eventual obsolescence. This flexibility can also significantly mitigate your product's demand volatility throughout all of these 'life' stages.

As mentioned, these stages can change rapidly these days. Case in point:Breathe99's B2 mask. What started as a fairly basic face mask used for general daily breathing protection in various settings, quickly transformed during the COVID-19 pandemic into a new design that featured a tighter seal and a filtration system that removed about 99.6 % of particles. Suddenly in high demand, the mask ended up being named one of Time Magazine's best inventions for 2020.

Design for Testing, Quality, and Compliance

Finally, testing and quality assurances, and industry-compliance requirements are mandatory in most industries. When designing for this variable, engineers and product developers will find digital manufacturing testing and inspection options are varied. Examples abound: tensile testing and CT scanning in 3D printing, First Article Inspection for all of our services, Process Capability Reports in injection molding, and so on. Quality management certifications are also relevant, especially in industries such as medical and aerospace: ISO 9001, AS9100D, ISO 13485, and so on.

In addition, industries themselves often have stringent compliance requirements for designers and engineers to further navigate. For example, Corindus, a Siemens Healthineers Company, used digital manufacturing to get needed prototype and production-ready tooling and parts fast to meet demanding testing, customer evaluations, FDA clearance, and production startup deadlines for its CorPath GRX Robotic System. CorPath is used for certain interventional vascular and other medical procedures.

Ultimately, as several sources point out, DfX's systematic approachto achieve certain targeted objectives can truly help to optimize your product design and development efforts.

Speaking of those efforts, if you have questions, feel free to contact us at 877-479-3680 or [email protected]. And, to get your next design project started with us, simply upload a 3D CAD model for an interactive quote within hours.

David Giebenhain is the global product director for 3D printing services for Protolabs.

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