Riassunto analitico
Under the definition of Additive Manufacturing (AM) there are gathered a family of different technologies that build up parts by adding materials layer by layer using data from a digital 3D model. After thirty years of development, AM is still at its beginning if compared to conventional manufacturing process. Undoubtedly, the most dramatic and challenging development of the group of technologies has been the printing of metals. Nowadays, it has become passible to produce final products with AM technologies and the development continues to grow faster than ever. Companies around the world are successfully applying the technology to the production of finished goods and also printer producers are being born day after day. AM allows a high degree of freedom of geometry and produces customized parts on-demand with almost similar material properties with the conventional manufactured parts. It does not require the use of coolants, fixtures, cutting tools and other assisting resources (however, depending on the necessities, it is likely to require post-building processing). The advantages of AM over conventional manufacturing can change the world of industry especially if we look at aerospace, automotive and aeronautics fields. In this thesis research, after reviewing most of the different AM technologies and an SLM machine, the application of metal AM on several components are described. Most of the components were built by using conventional methods so that, after performing a criticality and structural analysis, geometrical modification has been carried out in order to take the most advantages from Additive Manufacturing. Based on that development a sustainability analysis is performed consisting of production cost analysis which is compared with conventional technologies costs. In spite of all the progress, the application of metallic AM is still not widespread since it is suitable only for small batches and for high performance components. This because the technology is still expensive for the raw material (10-20 times more the conventional) and for the printers cost per hour. Since the materials as well as AM technologies are still evolving, in the near future, the cost of metallic AM is going to drop dramatically, and a better and more promising future is foreseen for metallic AM.
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