Introduction to additive manufacturing technologies

Additive manufacturing (AM) technology is a nontraditional manufacturing process that has disrupted convectional manufacturing technologies and has changed how parts and machineries are designed and produced. As opposed to conventional manufacturing processes in which complex parts need to be broken down into smaller several parts for ease of manufacturing, AM uses the three-dimensional computer-aided design model to build complex single parts by adding materials layer by layer and fusing them together with an appropriate energy source to produce such complex parts. AM has also helped in increasing productivity in some traditional manufacturing processes such as casting through rapid prototyping and tooling. Additive manufactured parts have been shown to possess good mechanical properties that are comparable or even surpass what is obtainable from traditional manufacturing processes. This chapter presents an introduction to AM technologies. The seven classes of AM technologies with their areas of application are presented.