# Development Workflow for Manifolds and Fluid Components Based on Laser Powder Bed Fusion
## 3 Case Study
### Embodied Design Phase (Steps 5-11 of Development Methodology)  
With a concept for the further development selected, the embodied design starts with the positioning of the main elements. For the efficient nesting of all components, the Software Deepnest (2018) is used to propose nesting solutions for the cross-section geometries of the motor and hydraulic components, which are to be positioned on the manifold. Figure 5 depicts one nesting solution and the resulting assembly, designed with PTC Creo. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Type** & **Value** & **Specification** \\ \hline Size & 300 mm \(\times\) 148 mm \(\times\) 80 mm & \\ Weight & 8.55 kg & Including 37 sealing stoppers \\ Pressure load & 0–16 MPa & \\ Lifetime & \textgreater{}10\({}^{7}\) load cycles & \\ Available AM build space & 250 mm \(\times\) 250 mm \(\times\) 325 mm & \\ Available AM material & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\(\text{AISi}_{10}\text{Mg}\)([PERSON] et al., 2018)} \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Specifications and boundary conditions for the manifold. Figure 4: (a) Topology optimized concept; (b) L-shape array concept; (c) Radial sealing concept. As the orientation of the main elements has strictly defined boundary conditions, the build-space orientation is chosen with regard to these elements. For the manufacturing with the available LPBF system, the economics, the support utilization, and the quality of key features are assessed for three orientations as depicted in Table 5. A flat, 0\({}^{\circ}\) orientation of the concept, as depicted in Table 4 can only manufacture one manifold per build job. A 90\({}^{\circ}\) orientation may enable the manufacturing of three manifolds but leads to excessive usage of support structure and an unfavorable orientation of key features. Finally, a tilted orientation can facilitate two manifolds per build job, while requiring the least amount of support structure of the three investigated orientations. Therefore, and under consideration of the resulting build job costs, a 49\({}^{\circ}\) orientation of the manifold within the build space is selected. The actual orientation was chosen in regard to support structure, achievable geometry resolution, surface quality, and build height through an in-depth analysis (among others laser scans, experience from previous build jobs) of angles from 45 to 55\({}^{\circ}\). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Criteria and Weighting** & **Concept (a)** & **Concept (b)** & **Concept (c)** \\ \hline Potential for manifold size reduction & 0.1 & 4 & 2 & 2 \\ \hline Potential for weight reduction & 0.15 & 4 & 2 & 2 \\ \hline Potential for improved hydraulic efficiency & 0.1 & 2 & 3 & 1 \\ \hline Technical feasibility/low development risk & 0.3 & 2 & 1 & 3 \\ \hline Degree of innovation & 0.1 & 4 & 3 & 1 \\ \hline Material efficiency & 0.05 & 2 & 4 & 2 \\ \hline Profitability of the build job & 0.2 & 3 & 4 & 3 \\ \hline  & & 2.90 & 2.40 & 2.30 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: Evaluation of the proposed concepts. Figure 5: (**a**) Proposed nesting solution; (**b**) resulting arrangement of the assembly. Following, the embodied design steps eight to eleven are executed as proposed in Figure 2. As depicted in Figure 6a, hydraulic channels are designed based on spline curves, with a special focus on conformal positioning onto existing features, a homogenous channel cross-section, and large radii for flow efficiency. Through the freedom in channel design, the integration of the hydraulic layout into the defined boundary conditions implicates little difficulties. The unfinished geometry of installation spaces is designed as uniform, cylindrical geometry, with a machining offset of at least 1 mm. Even though the minimization of the support structure is an elementary part of restrictive DfAM, the complex hydraulic layout requires compromises toward the usage of support. Critical elements, which may require support are identified with the AM preparations software Materialise Magics [30].