Technology overview of metal additive manufacturing processes

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The two primary methods of liquid based metal additive manufacturing are liquid metal 3D printing and solid freeform fabrication. These processes can decrease total cost of ownership, increase cycle times and improve safety. The im- plantation of these processes can be seen in defense, medical, aerospace and oil and gas due to the industries nature’s essentially and diverse supply chains. 1. Laminated object manufacturing and ultrasonic additive manufacturing are two main processes in solid based metal additive manufacturing. These processes have high volumetric build rates, many substrates are available like paper, plastic, metal foils. These methods are widely used in the automotive and tooling industries. 2. Wire based metal additive manufacturing process has significant importance for cost and lead time reduction for medium to large scale engineering components of medium complexity. Since the process has capability to create large size metal 3D parts and the employment of light weighted materials such as titanium parts, it is mostly used in aerospace industries. 3. Powder spray forming has a larger ’spot size’ than other powder-fed Additive Manufacturing techniques. This method can reduce material wastage by improving material utilization ratio (buy-to-fly) and can Manufacture or repair small numbers of legacy and spare parts cost-effectively. The deployment of these techniques are seen in defense application and space-aerospace departments. 4. Powder bed fusion has typical characteristics and application like powder recycling, wide material choice like ceramic, glass, metal alloys and relatively inexpensive process. The technique’s execution can be widely seen in dental implants, medical industries and automobile industries.

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