There is great potential for engineering design approaches in medicine to personalize treatments according to unique patient physiology and needs. However, it is challenging to optimize solutions such as medical implants given the complex biomechanical interactions between the body and implant. Here, we review personalization for clinical needs, biomechanical modelling, and computational design for interbody spinal cage implants. By reviewing relevant literature, research suggests specific clinical needs are addressable by redesigning cages with multi-objective optimization or artificial intelligence methods integrated with finite element modelling of the spine. Such an approach is generalizable to further biomechanical design cases, where personalized design provides promise to deliver higher quality solutions for the clinic.

Additive manufacturing is enabling on-demand fabrication of desirable polymer designs. Due to the technology’s widespread use, there is a need to ensure sustainable design approaches are practiced. Here, thermoplastics for fused deposition modeling is reviewed for life-cycle stages, mechanical properties, and design strategies. Life-cycle stages assessed include formulation, processing, applications, and end-of-life as well as recycling processes. Mechanical properties are considered for recyclable thermoplastics, with fillers to enhance functionality. Finally, design methods are considered to create mechanically efficient designs, such as metamaterials, that reduce material usage and processing time. The review highlights the great potential for creating sustainable designs with additively manufactured polymers, and their mechanical capabilities for broad applications.

Africa's manufacturing sector is pivotal for economic growth and technological advancement. However, challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, supply chain disruptions, geopolitical tensions, and high costs hinder its development. These issues impede domestic production and reduce global competitiveness. Addressing them is essential for economic resilience. While beneficial, traditional strategies often overlook fundamental production constraints, especially in manufacturing sectors reliant on repair, maintenance, specialized components, and tooling. Manufacturing methods like casting face limitations in flexibility, cost, precision, and lead times. This research proposes using additive manufacturing (AM)-assisted casting to address these challenges. We identify agriculture and automotive as sectors with high potential to implement AM-assisted casting.

Thanks to its design freedom, additive manufacturing (AM) offers the possibility of directly integrating functions and effects into parts. One of these effects is particle damping, which can significantly increase the damping of parts due to the friction of loose particles in closed cavities. However, the design of these cavities is challenging due to a large number of influencing factors. This article presents a tool that optimizes the component topology and creates particle damping cavities. Using the bidirectional evolutionary structure optimization method, an optimization of mass, stiffness, and damping is achieved. The verification of the tool shows that, in addition to reducing the part mass, the integration of the particle dampers is successfully implemented in compliance with the design principles from the literature. Furthermore, restrictions of the AM process were implemented.

The industrial application of additive manufacturing (AM) necessitates close collaboration between design and manufacturing. However, significant challenges persist throughout the product development process. To explore these challenges, we conducted interviews with 11 engineers from different companies utilizing AM technologies. These interviews revealed recurring themes, such as a lack of AM-specific mindset and uninformed decision-making, which pose challenges across different phases of product development. The identified challenges, along with proposed solutions and practices, were mapped to specific product development phases, providing a scope for development frameworks for AM. Our study indicates that while some challenges are phase-specific, others impact the entire product development process. Operational solutions for different development phases are still missing.

The environmental impacts generated by manufacturing processes have become a concern, as underlined by regulation controls. Studies tend to focus on optimization of the processes through process parameter refinement to try to reduce energy consumption and raw material consumption. However, a thorough assessment of the building of a component linked to its use should be performed to help decision making. The focus of this paper is to define a methodology that helps the choice of the process parameters since the first design steps, by assessing this choice on the mechanical properties and thus the global environmental impact of the manufactured component. To do so, a case study is applied to a given additive manufacturing technology combining metal injection molding and fused filament fabrication. This combination is part of the additive manufacturing processes involving material extrusion.

Additive manufacturing (AM) enables the creation of complex internal geometries, including cooling channels. Yet, the impact of AM-induced surface roughness on their fluid dynamics remains underexplored. The goal of this study is to provide insight into the effects of surface roughness on the fluid dynamics of AM channels. A parametric surface roughness model and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were employed to examine three representative AM channel cross-sections: diamond, droplet, and circular. The findings indicate that diamond profiles result in higher pressure losses and turbulence intensity compared to the other cross-sections. In contrast, droplet profiles exhibit lower pressure losses and turbulence intensity compared to diamond profiles, while circular channels remain optimal in non-overhang areas.

Despite the lightweighting benefts that hollow structures afford, current Generative Design (GD) tools are not capable of synthesising them by default. This paper proposes an approach to generate hollow structures using an off-the-shelf GD tool and an innovative shelling method. The approach is used to create solid and hollow variants of a load bearing component. These are modelled using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) then Additively Manufactured (AM) and characterised via destructive load testing. FEA results show that the shelled structures are up to 2.5 x stiffer than their solid counterparts however destructive testing revealed small stiffness losses attributable to the AM process. Despite the physical testing results the method offers the potential to apply GD tools to industries where hollow tubes are accepted practice, enabling part consolidation capabilities to be leveraged.

Radiotherapy involves applying radiation doses to tumor cells and healthy tissue. To protect healthy tissue, an accessory called a bolus is used. Traditional boluses face issues such as limited adaptability and inconsistencies in radiodensity. This study proposes a low-cost process that uses 3D scans and additive manufacturing (AM) to design and produce custom boluses. The method uses a 3D scanner as an alternative to standard medical image acquisition, processes the images with CAD and mesh optimization, and then manufactures the pieces through additive manufacturing using polylactic acid (PLA) as the printing material. By optimizing the fill percentage, radiodensity was controlled, resulting in boluses that achieved a 65% cost reduction in material and an 81% savings in imaging compared to the traditional method.

The ability to modify designs, personalize nutrition, and improve food sustainability makes 3D food printing (3DFP) an exciting emerging technology. Food materials’ complex chemistry and mechanics make it difficult to consistently print designs of different shapes. This research uses two methods to assess printed food fidelity: Manual and automated image analysis with custom-developed algorithm. Fidelity based on printed area was measured for three overhang designs (0°, 30°, and 60°) and three food ink mixtures. The manual method provided a baseline for analysis by comparing printed images with CAD images. Both methods showed consistent results with only ±3% differences in analyzing printed design areas. While the computational method offers advantages for efficiency and bias reduction, making it well-suited for fidelity assessment to assess designs.

There is a need for design of synthetic organs due to the high demand of organ replacements for patients and low availability of alternatives. Recent advancements in additive manufacturing are enabling the creation of biomimetic organs with biocompatible materials suitable for use in the body. Here, we consider a design, build, test approach for creating synthetic blood vessel tubules by comparing fused deposition modelling and stereolithography printing processes. Tubules were printed with vessel diameters from 10 mm to 20 mm and wall thicknesses of 1 mm to 2.5 mm. Mechanical testing results demonstrated high elongation of tubules prior to breaking. Results highlight the possibility for designers to create flexible biomimetic structures to aid biomedical applications, which opens the doors for new types of patient treatments in organ repair and transplantation.

Increased interest in space exploration demands a shift in the design and manufacturing of space systems. Traditionally, space structures are limited by constraints associated with launch systems that affect cost, volume, and mass. The concept of Factory in Space (FIS) proposes the fabrication of systems in space to circumvent the launch constraints. FIS offers a transition to a circular economy in space by minimizing resource consumption and creating a self-sustaining factory ecosystem. This paper evaluates the role of circular design in FIS. Circular design in FIS leads to a reduction in design complexity and modular designs that could enhance space exploration. Material selection, modular design, design for robustness, and lifecycle thinking are highlighted as factors that influence design for circularity in FIS. Finally, the challenges associated with circularity in FIS are presented

3D food printing is transforming the food industry by enabling the production of customized, on-demand foods with intricate designs. However, achieving high shape fidelity remains a challenge for optimized food ink formulations. This study investigates 3D-printed foods with overhang designs using extrusion-based 3D printing. Mashed potato and pea protein were selected as base ingredients with varied water content to assess their differences in moisture content (70–87%), pH (5.66–7.06), firmness (0.52–8.12 N), and adhesiveness (0.29–2.73 N·s). Shape fidelity was evaluated by printing geometries with overhang angles of 0° and 60°. Results showed the best printability at a 1:4 ratio (81% moisture) for mashed potato and 1:3.5 ratio (78% moisture) for pea protein. These insights provide guidelines for engineering high-fidelity food inks, that advances additive manufacturing in food design.

This paper presents a motion-based taxonomy for classifying lattice structures in additive manufacturing (AM) based on their geometric suitability for linear, oscillating, reciprocating, and rotary motions. While existing classification frameworks primarily focus on static load-bearing performance, this study develops a geometry-driven taxonomy, classifying 51 lattice variations based on how tessellation patterns and wall thickness influence motion-driven deformation. The taxonomy provides a framework independent of materials, aiding the selection of lattices for compliant structures, and energy-absorbing applications, by isolating geometric tessellations to assess their role in dynamic deformation and motion suitability. This approach links lattice geometry to motion-driven behaviour, offering a predictive framework for AM design while emphasising its role in motion applications.

A fused deposition modeling (FDM)-based polarization-dependent frequency-agile Frequency Selective Surface using distilled water is proposed in this paper. The FSS consists of a periodic array of vertically meandered square loops with two rectangular fluidic cavities embedded within the substrate. The resonant frequency is dynamically tuned across three distinct operating states by selectively filling one or both embedded cavities with distilled water, achieving a 47.42% tuning range in TE mode (2.15–3.45 GHz) and a 10.28% range in TM mode (3.32–3.68 GHz). An equivalent circuit model is developed to explain this tuning behavior by emphasizing the impact of fluid-induced permittivity changes in the substrate. Experimental results from a fabricated prototype validate the simulated performance, demonstrating angular stability up to 45∘. The proposed geometry is low-cost, lightweight, and energy-efficient, making it ideal for integration into adaptive communication systems, reconfigurable antennas, and electromagnetic shielding applications.

INCUS (INvestigation of Convective UpdraftS) is a NASA Earth Science mission scheduled to launch in 2026. The goal of the mission is to study in detail how water vapor and droplets move inside tropical storms and thunderstorms and understand their effects on weather and climate models. To carry out this study, the mission will use three almost identical SmallSats, each equipped with a Raincube-heritage Ka-band radar. The deployable mesh reflector antenna is a new 1.6 m design provided by Tendeg, which is fed using a seven-horn feed assembly to generate overlapping secondary beams. This paper discusses the approach used to design and fabricate the feed assembly and presents the measured and calculated RF performance parameters.

Evaluation approaches are needed to ensure the development of effective design support. These approaches help developers ensure that their design support possesses the general design support characteristics necessary to enable designers to achieve their desired outcomes. Consequently, evaluating design support based on these characteristics ensures that the design support fulfils its intended purpose.

This work reviews design support definitions and identifies and describes 11 design support characteristics. The characteristics are applied to evaluate a proposed design support that uses additive manufacturing (AM) design artefacts (AMDAs) to explore design uncertainties. Product-specific design artefacts were designed and tested to investigate buildability limits and the relationship between surface roughness and fatigue performance of a design feature in a space industry component. The AMDA approach aided the investigation of design uncertainties, identified design solution constraints, and uncovered previously unknown uncertainties. However, the results provided by product-specific artefacts depend on how well the user frames their problem and understands their AM process and product. Hence, iterations can be required. Based on the evaluation of the AMDA process, setting test evaluation criteria is recommended, and the AMDA method is proposed.

The additive manufacturing of parts made from close-to-production materials poses a great challenge. One example are highly viscous silicones, as used in injection moulding. For small production quantities, the manufacturing of injection moulds is uneconomical. This paper presents tensile specimens printed with an in-house developed dispensing system, which are analysed for air cavities (micro-CT scans) and mechanical properties. Based on the results, advice for the design and slicing parameters of parts using high-viscosity silicones in AM by means of material extrusion are developed.