A fuzzy logic application for selecting layered manufacturing techniques

Adapting products to the market has become vital in today’s industry. This necessitates the ability to satisfy contradictory parameters of producing parts with high quality and lower costs. The paper presents a fuzzy logic approach to select the best rapid prototyping technique for producing prototypes. Evaluation criteria were set and experts were consulted to assign their importance weights. The approach adopted classifies the factors which affect the selection process into static and dynamic factors. Fuzzy if–then rules and fuzzy sets are used to translate the appropriateness of each rapid prototyping technique to each evaluation criterion of the project. The “Max–Min set” method is applied to obtain the efficiencies which are combined with their importance weights. The process was effective in identifying the best rapid prototyping technique with the highest overall efficiency.