AM Process Categories

Process description: 

A liquid bonding agent is selectively deposited to join powder materials.

Materials: 

Metal and sand

Typical applications:

• Serial metal parts ≈500-20.000
• Printing of sand molds

AM process variants – a selected overview

• Binder Jetting (BJT)
• Multi Jet Fusion© (MJF)

Process description: 

A focused energy source used to fuse materials as they are being deposited.

Materials: 

Metal

Typical applications:

• Repair/coating of shafts for oil & gas/heavy duty machinery
• Aviation Ti parts

AM process variants – a selected overview

• Laser Engineering Net Shape (LENS)
• Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing (EBAM)
• Rapid Plasma Deposition

Process description: 

Material is selectively dispensed through a nozzle or orifice.

Materials: 

Metal, polymer and composite

Typical applications:

• 3D printing @ home
• High performance polymers (e.g. PEEK)

AM process variants – a selected overview

• Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) – Polymer
• Arburg Plastic Freeforming (APF) – Polymer

Process description: 

Droplets of build material are selectively deposited.

Materials: 

Metal, polymer and wax

Typical applications:

• Multicolor/-mate-rial prototypes
• Wax patterns for jewelry
• Molds for investmment casting

AM process variants – a selected overview

• Material Jetting (MJ) – Polymer
• Multi-Jet Modeling (MJM) (also: MultiJet Printing (MJP), PolyJet) – Polymer
• NanoParticle Jetting (NPJ) – Polymer

Process description: 

Energy source selectively fuses regions of a powder bed.

Materials: 

Metal and polymer

Typical applications:

• Polyamer  prototypes
• Complex metal parts: Implants, fuel nozzle, turbine blades

AM process variants – a selected overview

• Laser-beam PBF of polymers (L-PBF) (also: Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)) – Polymer
• LB-PBF of metals (L-PBF) (also: Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), Selective Laser Melting (SLM), Laser Metal Fusion (LMF)) – Metal
• Electron beam PBF of metals (E-PBF) (also: Electron Beam Melting (EBM)) – Metal

Process description: 

Sheets of material are bonded to form a part.

Materials: 

Composite, paper

Typical applications:

• Full color paper prototypes

AM process variants – a selected overview

• Laminated Object Manufacturing
  (LOM) – Other

Process description: 

Liquid photopolymer in a vat is selectively cured by light-activated polymerization.

Materials: 

Ceramic, photopolymer

Typical applications:

• Silicone hearing aids
• High surface finish prototypes

AM process variants – a selected overview

• Stereolithography (SLA) – Polymer
• Digital Light Processing (DLP) – Polymer
• Continuous Digital Light Processing (CLIP) – Polymer
• Lithography-based Ceramic – Ceramic Manufacturing (LCM) – Ceramic