Solid Freeform Fabrication: A New Direction in Manufacturing

This research monograph covers the emerging manufacturing technology of solid freeform fabrication. This new enabling technology is a set of manufacturing processes capable of dramatically reducing time to market by producing complex freeform solid objects directly from a computer model without part-specific tooling or knowledge. The author presents a detailed description of present solid freeform fabrication techniques whilst providing an historical perspective of its development. Researchers in mechanical, chemical, electrical, and manufacturing engineering and materials and computer science should all find material of interest in this book. Particular subareas of concern include manufacturing methods, polymer chemistry, computational geometry, control, heat transfer, metallurgy, ceramics, optics, and fluid mechanics. Whilst this book covers the spectrum of solid freeform fabrication processes, particular emphasis is given to the area of thermal laser processing in which the authors have contributed research.