10.01 - Introduction to Advances in Additive Manufacturing and Tooling

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a new generation of manufacturing processes in which a part is fabricated by layer-by-layer addition of materials as opposed to traditional material removal processes or material deformation processes. The AM process creates parts directly from computer model without resorting to traditional tooling or numerical control programming. The AM technology has gained considerable recognition and adoption in various industry sectors ever since the first AM process (stereolithography) was introduced in late 1980s. Since then a variety of AM processes have been developed, which differ in the manner of creating and depositing layers, in the range of materials processed, and the extent of product quality, accuracy, and build speed. Initially, AM systems were commonly known as rapid prototyping systems because they were mainly aimed at producing physical prototypes in softer materials (such as polymer) for design and verification of new products. The physical prototypes could be produced by these systems rapidly compared with long lead times taken by traditional machining or molding processes. Now within a span of two decades, the AM has moved from prototyping stage to end-product manufacturing of real industrial parts in a variety of materials, both metals and nonmetals, spanning a wide range of applications in low volume or customized production. It should be noted that this technology has also been known by several other terms in published literature and books, such as rapid manufacturing, solid freeform fabrication, direct digital manufacturing, and more recently by just 3D printing in public media. AM is now the standard name adopted by American Society for Testing and Materials to represent this new generation of manufacturing technology.