Recent Advances in Additive Manufacturing and Its Postprocessing

Dear Colleagues,

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have been considered as an alternative of conventional manufacturing processes for the past couple of decades. AM encompasses a broad range of manufacturing process technologies that are emerging to offer the prospect of on-demand, mass personalization, with more localized, flexible, and sustainable production. Its adoption and implementation have been increasingly disrupting the organization of manufacturing and the ways which companies capture and compete in the process chain and value chains.

However, numerous challenges to achieving its full potential remain. While many of them stem from the relative immaturity of these technologies for manufacturing and the performance improvements necessary for it to begin to substitute traditional processes, there are other challenges and barriers inhibiting its adoption and application. These include issues of new materials suitable for AM processes, relatively high cost, standardization, postprocessing for better surface finishing and form/dimensional accuracy, intellectual property, quality certification of AM parts, and skills and education. Furthermore, its adoption has significant implications for the configuration and sustainability of manufacturing, and it is essential that such issues be identified and a holistic approach/implementation perspectives be established for the growth of the industry in high-value manufacturing in particular.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners to review state-of-the-art additive manufacturing design and development, and the underlying engineering science and fundamentals, and to identify possible directions for future 3D printing and applications. Original contributions should discuss the innovative design, development, and application of 3D printing, and emphasis will be on the knowledge, innovation, and insights accumulated over the past two decades in particular, and also on opportunities and implications for the future. Possible topics within this scope include but are not limited to:

• Hybrid additive manufacturing;
• Process monitoring and control of additive manufacturing;
• Design of machines and systems for additive manufacturing;
• Additive manufacturing of metamaterials;
• Metal additive manufacturing and applications;
• New materials for additive manufacturing;
• New and innovative applications of additive manufacturing;
• Modeling and simulation of additive manufacturing;
• Surface finishing and form/dimensional accuracy in additive manufacturing;
• Postprocessing of additive manufactured parts and components;
• Surface finishing and form/dimensional accuracy in postprocessing;
• Metrology measurement and in-process monitoring;
• Review of recent progress in additive manufacturing R&D and applications.

Dr. Yingtao Tian
Dr. Yizhi Shao
Dr. Hao Wu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• additive manufacturing
• design of machine systems for AM
• post processing
• process monitoring
• new materials for AM