ABSTRACT
In additive manufacturing (AM), the technologies use a product material and a support material to manufacture the model. The support material is sometimes conserved into the prototyped model and cleared outside. This elimination of support material entails user cost. In some cases, the support has no structural rules and becomes a manufacturing residue that goes against the aims of Ecodesign. Support material is, in most cases, cleaned and becomes a manufacturing residue. Improving the material volume and the global mass of the product is an essential aim surrounding the integration of simulation in AM. Moreover, the layer-by-layer technology of AM allows the design of innovative objects, and the use of topological optimization in this context can create a very interesting combination. The purpose of our chapter is to present a methodology and a tool that allow the use of topological optimization for the preparation of models for AM.
