Development approach for AM of transmission components

Main advantages of metal additive manufacturing are to overcome both structural and material constraints faced by currently employed traditional manufacturing processes. Yet, benefits are still offset by several challenges and high costs that cause AM to be mainly constrained to prototyping, tooling or high-end and racing applications. Aim of this master thesis study is to investigate metal additive manufacturing as potential, future, cost-effective manufacturing production technology for low-production volumes of passenger cars transmission components. Starting from the literature, the necessary considerations and the required toolchain to develop as well as to benefit from an AM process will be addressed. Hence, the general development approach will be evaluated by comparing a conventional to an AM - fabricated chosen component. From the traditionally manufactured product, AM will be exploited by applying part topology optimization as to achieve weight reduction while guaranteeing its mechanical and thermal performance but also improving its functionality. From various simulations and analyses results, some considerations, cost assessments and conclusions will be drawn and, finally, some potential future work steps suggested.