The Application of Additive Manufacturing / 3D Printing in Ergonomic Aspects of Product Design: a Systematic Review
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Applied Ergonomics 97 (2021) 103528 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Applied Ergonomics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apergo Review article The application of additive manufacturing / 3D printing in ergonomic aspects of product design: A systematic review Tjaˇsa Kermavnar a, Alice Shannon b, Leonard W. O’Sullivan a,* a School of Design, Confirm Smart Manufacturing Centre and Health Research Institute, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland b School of Design, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Additive Manufacturing (AM) facilitates product personalization and iterative design, which makes it an ideal 3D printing technology for ergonomic product development. In this study, a systematic review was conducted of the liter Additive manufacturing ature regarding the use of AM in ergonomic-product design, and methodological aspects of the studies were Ergonomics analyzed. A literature search was performed using the keywords “3D print*,” “additive manufacturing,” “ergo Human factors nomic*” and “human factors”. Included were studies reporting the use of AM specificallyin ergonomic design of products/prototypes including the detailing of an ergonomic testing methodology used for evaluation. Forty studies were identified pertaining to the fields of medicine, assistive technology, wearable technology, hand tools, testing devices and others. The most commonly used technology was fused deposition modeling with polylactic acid, but the overall preferred material was acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. Various combinations of objective/subjective and qualitative/quantitative product evaluation methods were used. Based on the findings, recommendations were developed to facilitate the choice of most suitable AM technologies and materials for specific applications in ergonomics. 1. Introduction modifications based on user evaluations of prototypes. As user evalua tions should be performed on full-size physical prototypes of products Additive Manufacturing (AM), also known as three-dimensional and realized in near-final materials (McDonald et al., 2016), AM is an printing (3DP) technology, is used to build physical objects from digi ideal technology for product/prototype manufacture for ergonomic tal 3D-model data, i.e., Computer-Aided Design (CAD) files, by succes testing, in particular in relation to applications requiring bespoke fit to sive addition of material (ISO/ASTM 52900:2015). Initially AM was humans, and also in relation to iterative testing and redesign. mainly limited to manufacturing prototypes and was synonymous with CAD models for AM can be created using 3D-modeling software, but Rapid Prototyping (RP) (Carlstrom¨ and Wargsjo,¨ 2017), but it is being also through Reverse Engineering (RE) approaches using different progressively used for direct fabrication of end products and compo scanning techniques, e.g., 3D scanning, Computer Tomography (CT) nents, and as such also now known as Rapid Manufacturing (RM) scanning and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). RE is especially (Hopkinson et al., 2006). useful for the reproduction of organic shapes and objects based on in For ergonomic purposes, AM has been increasingly utilized across dividual anatomy (Carlstrom¨ and Wargsjo,¨ 2017), allowing for the diverse fields related to product/prototype design, including in medi design of highly personalized, custom-made ergonomic products. cine, development of assistive technologies (AT), wearable technologies Recently, advanced computer techniques such as automatic measure (WT), and physical human-machine interfaces (pHMI). The aim of er ment of anthropometric dimensions, skin deformation, posture change, gonomics is to inform the design of safe, comfortable and efficient virtual fittesting, prediction of contact pressure, or estimation of muscle products and tasks, based on the study of human characteristics and force have also been applied to 3D-scan data (Ballester et al.; Dai et al., human-machine/environment interactions (HFES, 2020). Thus, the 2011; Lee et al., 2018; Lei et al., 2012; Reed et al.). ergonomics-based development of products is typically an iterative By enabling users’ involvement in the design process, AM can facil “design-evaluation-redesign” process comprising several design itate enhanced User-Centered Design (UCD). Moreover, AM methods are * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (L.W. O’Sullivan). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2021.103528 Received 9 June 2020; Received in revised form 24 May 2021; Accepted 1 July 2021 Available online 10 July 2021 0003-6870/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). T. Kermavnar et al. Applied Ergonomics 97 (2021) 103528 becoming increasingly available at affordable prices due to expiring 2. Method patents and increasing competition, open-source sites and cloud-based CAD software, which, together with user-friendly interfaces, enables 2.1. Literature search and study selection non-AM experts to create products easily (Jafri and Ali, 2015). Thus, the use of AM for custom, on-site production of individualized products is A systematic literature search was performed on May 6, 2020 using likely to extend to several areas in the future, assisting the progress of Scopus and EBSCOhost databases. To identify articles of interest, the ergonomic product design. following keywords were used: “3D print*” OR “additive The International Standard ISO/ASTM 52900:2015 classifies AM manufacturing,” AND “ergonomic*” OR “human factors” in the title OR technologies into seven categories: (1) Binder Jetting (BJ); (2) Directed the abstract. The search was limited to papers in the English language, Energy Deposition (DED); (3) Material Extrusion (ME); (4) Material and articles from trade publications and magazines were excluded. An Jetting (MJ); (5) Powder Bed Fusion (PBF); (6) Sheet Lamination (SL); additional search was performed on May 14, 2021 using the same da and (7) Vat Photopolymerization (VP). These processes are either tabases and keywords to update the review with studies published in liquid-, solid- or powder-based (Wong and Hernandez, 2012). The cat 2020 and 2021. Based on the abstract and full-text review, results not egories and sub-categories of AM processes are presented in Fig. 1. reporting on the use of AM specificallyin ergonomic design of products Factors affecting the choice of AM technology for specific applica or prototypes were excluded. In addition, it was required that the studies tions include cost, choice of material, post-processing requirements, specifically include the description of the ergonomics-testing method requirements of surface finish and dimensional accuracy, possibility of ology. Relevant studies referenced in the selected papers were also sterilization, fabrication speed (layer thickness per unit time), and res included. The search results and study selection criteria are presented in olution (minimum feature area and minimum layer thickness) Fig. 2. Two of the authors (T.K. and A.S.) conducted the study search and (Imˇsirovi´c and Kumnova, 2017; Lee et al., 2017). The most common AM selection based on the pre-agreed criteria outlined above. Both re processes and their applications are described in Table 1 according to viewers identified the same articles for inclusion. the currently available data. However, it is of note that specifications like maximum build volume, fabrication speed, and machine cost, as well as the materials available for use with the individual technologies 2.2. Data extraction and synthesis are changing with the development of AM. Recent developments have introduced 4D printing, an AM technol Data and details were extracted from the selected studies under the ogy that integrates smart materials that change their shape or physical following criteria: (1) field of application, product description, stage of properties in a useful manner under the influence of external stimuli. product development, and ergonomic problem addressed; (2) AM pro Examples include enhanced smart nanocomposites, shape memory al cedure description, from CAD-model acquisition to 3D printing and post- loys, shape memory polymers, actuators for soft robotics, self-evolving processing of the prototypes; (3) digital model analyses and/or testing of structures, anti-counterfeiting system, active origami, and controlled physical prototypes for ergonomics evaluation; and (4) findings and sequential folding (Khoo et al., 2015). commentary regarding AM technology use and the outcomes from an The aim of this work was to perform a systematic review of the ergonomics perspective. literature regarding the use of AM technologies in ergonomics studies related to product/prototype design and to develop recommendations 3. Results regarding the use of this technology and their materials in the context of ergonomic product design. 3.1. Product fields of application and problems addressed Forty relevant papers were identified and analyzed. Regarding the fields of application, 11 products were in the field of medicine, more specifically, 7 in surgery (2 patient-specific surgical guides, 3 surgical instruments, 1 surgical robot, and 1 external fixator),1 in anesthesiology Fig. 1. Classification of additive manufacturing technologies with bonding principles and typical materials used, based on standard ISO/ASTM 52900:2015, Imˇsirovi´c and Kumnova (2017), and Lee et al. (2017).