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Facilitating consumer
involvement in design for
additive manufacturing / 3D
printing products
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by the/an author.
Additional Information:

A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fullment of the requirements for

the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.

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https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/21763

c Yudhi Ariadi

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Loughborough University
Loughborough Design School

Facilitating Consumer Involvement in Design for

Additive Manufacturing / 3D Printing Products
by
YUDHI ARIADI

Doctoral thesis submitted in part fulfilment of the requirement for the award of
Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University

Yudhi Ariadi 2016

Abstract
This research investigates the potential of the general public to actively design their
own products and let consumers either manufacture by themselves or send the files
to manufacturers to be produced.
This approach anticipates the rapid growth of fabrication technology, particularly in
Additive Manufacturing (AM)/3D printing. Recent developments in the field of
AM/3D printing have led to renewed interest in how to manufacture customised
products and in a way that will allow consumers to create bespoke products more
easily. These technologies can enhance the understanding of non-technology
compliant consumers and bring the manufacturing process closer to them.
Consequently, to make AM/3D printing more accessible and easier to employ by the
general public, design aspects need to be developed to be as simple to operate in the
same manner as AM/3D printing technologies. These technologies will then attract
consumers who want to produce Do-It-Yourself (DIY) products.
This study suggests a Computer-aided Consumer Design (CaCODE) system as userfriendly design software to simplify the Computer Aided Design (CAD) stages that are
required to produce 3D model data required by the AM/3D printing process. This
software will be an easy-to-operate design system where consumers interact with
parameters of designed forms easily instead of operating conventional CAD. In
addition, this research investigates the current capabilities of AM/3D printing
technologies in producing consumer products.
To uncover the potential of consumer-led design and manufacturing, CaCODE has
been developed for consumer evaluation, which is needed to measure the
appropriateness of the tool. In addition, a range of consumer product samples as
pens has been built using a range of different materials, AM/3D printing technologies
and additional post-processing methods. This was undertaken to evaluate consumer
acceptance of the AM/3D printed product based on products perceived quality.
Forty non-designer participants, 50% male and 50% female, from 5 to 64 years old,
6-7 participants per ten-year age groups in 6 groups, were recruited.
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Abstract

The results indicated that 75% of the participants would like to design their own
product using consumer design software. The study compared how consumers
interacted with the 3D model to manipulate the shape by using two methods: indirect
manipulation (sliders) and direct manipulation (drag points). The majority of the
participants would prefer to use the direct manipulation because they felt it was easy
to use and enabled them to enjoy the design process. The study concluded that the
direct manipulation was more acceptable because it enabled users to touch the
digital product and manipulate it, making it more intuitive and natural. The research
finds that there is a potential for consumers to design a product using user-friendly
design tools. Using these findings, a consumer design tool concept was created for
future development.
The study indicated that 53% of participants would like to use products made by
AM/3D printing although they still wanted the surface finish of injection moulded
parts. However, the AM/3D printing has advantages that can fulfil the participants
preference such as multi-materials from the material jetting method and it is proved
that additional post-processing can increase participants acceptance level.

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