Industrialization of hybrid and additive manufacturing of metals: Challenges in implementation

Both additive and hybrid manufacturing open many new possibilities and perspectives to manufacturing but until now the systems have been stand-alone technologies without real industrial implementation on workshop floor. The research is concentrated mainly in design and process optimization, and separate part printing. Therefore, automatic and flexible industrial production has not been possible with current technologies. Most of the process steps include manual work and development work is needed especially in pre- and post-processing of the AM machines. Some trials have been made e.g. on powder handling and part removal from system, but real solutions are not seen in markets yet. Also post-processes, i.e. stress relief and other post-heat treatments, as well as machining steps, grinding, polishing etc. need solutions. In addition quality inspection should be included in the total system. In the presentation the systems in the market are analyzed giving the possibilities for different and the current barriers hindering the controlled automatic production are presented to give perspective to the future work.