Production Process Chain from CAD to Part

Additive manufacturing (AM) is an umbrella term summarizing various technologies having in common that physical objects are manufactured tool-less by adding rather than removing material like in traditional manufacturing. Since in AM different materials from basically all classes (metals, plastics, etc.) are processable, the individual processes differ in the way how the model data have to be prepared and what process principles are applied to consolidate the different forms of raw materials such as powders, filaments, or photo polymeric fluids. Therefore, the technologies also differ in the way how the processes are parametrized, while the quality of the manufactured parts also depends on the various processing parameters. Consequently, most AM-parts are raw components that need different post-processing steps to achieve the required industrial quality level. The chapter presents a generic AM process chain representing common processing steps, and discusses the main considerations that have to be taken when using additive manufacturing processes. For industrial significance reference to the most commonly used AM technologies are made.