Hybrid Additive Manufacturing: A Review from a Process Planning Perspective

Abstract

Currently, in manufacturing industries, hybrid manufacturing (HM) has emerged as a paradigm shift since it provides numerous benefits which include lead time reduction, cost savings and waste minimization. Hybrid additive manufacturing (HAM), being one of the tiers of HM, couples additive technology with traditional or non-conventional technologies resulting in the enhancement of product performance. For efficient part fabrication considering technical, economic, and environmental benefits, process planning is vital. The literature review reveals that due to the unexplored potential of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and lack of knowledge of complexities in HAM, the process planning in HAM is still in its infancy. By providing a systematic literature review of different techniques of process planning, this paper tries to bridge this research gap in HAM. Furthermore, the challenges and opportunities in process planning of HAM are also discussed which will help to exploit the future horizons in this field. Ninety-six journal research articles were considered in the systematic literature review (SLR) study which uncovered eight categories of process planning and fifteen challenges and opportunities for future trends. It is concluded that a large research gap in the process planning of HAM needs to be fulfilled to secure time and enhance quality and functionality in the advanced manufacturing era.