Industrial Status on Metal additive manufacturing

Nowadays, additive processes are the most promising ones among emerging manufacturing technologies, thanks to their capabilities of producing complex shapes and making free from constains proper of conventional methods of manufacturing. Among these techniques, selective laser melting and electron beam melting are the most diffuse adidtive technologies for industrial applications. In this work the main characteristics of laser and electron beam based additive systems, the principal properties of the powders and the microstructure of the additive manufactured parts are described. Moreover, some concepts regarding ad hoc parts design are also reported, underlining the links with the functionalities required by the applications.