ABSTRACT
Additive manufacturing is a relatively recent and advanced manufacturing technique which has become a key area of interest in every industrial sector. Additive manufacturing (AM) is the process of joining materials to make objects from computer-aided design (CAD) model data, and usually layer upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing methods. Additive manufacturing is also called 3D printing, additive fabrication, or freeform fabrication. Additive manufacturing is a novel method of manufacturing the parts directly from digital model imported from CAD software by using a layer-by-layer material build-up approach. This tool-less manufacturing method can produce fully dense metallic parts in less time, with high accuracy and precision. Advantages of additive manufacturing include, like freedom of part design, part complexity, light weight, part consolidation, and design for function; as a result, it is garnering particular interest in metal additive manufacturing for applications in the aerospace, oil and gas, marine, automobile, and many other industries. This chapter focuses in particular on beginner level knowledge of additive manufacturing and 3D printing in shaping the evaluation of 3D printing, technology improvement, the active 3D printing market, and different processes and classifications.
