AdditiveManufacturing

Additivemanufacturing, commonly known as additive manufacturing, is a set of processes that create parts by adding material layer by layer under computer control. It contrasts with traditional subtractive or formative methods and enables complex geometries, customization, and rapid prototyping. The technology encompasses a range of processes and materials and is used across aerospace, automotive, medical, and consumer industries.

Most widely used families include vat polymerization, material extrusion, powder bed fusion, binder jetting, material jetting, and directed energy deposition. In vat polymerization, a liquid resin is selectively cured by light. Material extrusion melts or softens material through a nozzle. Powder bed fusion uses heat to fuse metal or plastic powder. Binder jetting deposits a binding agent on a powder bed. Material jetting ejects droplets of resin or wax, and directed energy deposition builds with focused energy on the material.

Materials range from thermoplastics and photopolymers to metals, ceramics, and composites, and some processes can produce functional end-use parts while others enable rapid prototyping. Applications include lightweight aerospace components, customized medical implants, tooling and jigs, automotive parts, and architectural models.

Benefits include design freedom, waste reduction for some processes, shorter supply chains, and the ability to produce customized parts without expensive tooling. Challenges include high equipment and material costs, slower unit production at high volumes, post-processing requirements, surface finish, and variability in mechanical properties. Regulatory and certification considerations also influence adoption for critical parts.

Standards organizations such as ISO and ASTM maintain guidelines and terminology for additive manufacturing. The field has evolved since the 1980s, with ongoing research in materials, process efficiency, and process monitoring to ensure reproducibility, traceability, and quality for production-scale applications.