Latest trends in Additive manufacturing

Abstract

Additive manufacturing is the most recent and the most revolutionary technology in the production industry. It is an unconventional method of manufacturing. In this manufacturing method, material is added one layer upon another layer to get the required shape and size of object. Most complex objects can be built very easily by this technology. Additive manufacturing has the capability to reduce the supply chain by reducing a number of processing stages of a product. Additive manufacturing technology developed a lot from the day 3D printing technique, introduced as Stereolithography in 1984 by Charles W. Hull. Today we have different types of 3D printing techniques such as polymer resin based printing, wire based printing(FDM) and powder based printing(SLS) and some hybrid Additive manufacturing like High speed sintering. Additive manufacturing has applications spread from Aerospace industry to Toy industry and from Biomedical industry to Construction field. Additive manufacturing leads to “Social manufacturing” which involves customers in all stages of product manufacturing. Most of the large scale industries are investing a large capital in R&D for this 3D printing. Many startups are entering into the market each day. Today bio-compatible kidneys, bones and even hearts are bio printed, multi-storey buildings have already been 3D printed and research works are in progress. Now researchers are stepping towards 4D printing which uses “Intelligent” materials which can be coded. Research work is being done on different Additive manufacturing techniques and different materials and process parameters. This paper is a review of Additive manufacturing and it’s latest trends. The Trends related to printing technique as well as materials.