Additive-manufacturing (AM) technologies have drawn a lot of attention and investment from the manufacturing community in recent years. This article presents an overview of AM processes, including their economic and operational advantages and constraints.

The origins of the additive-manufacturing (AM) industry (also called the 3D-printing industry) date back to the 1980s, when the technology set of processes that produced parts additively – one layer at a time – were referred to as “rapid prototyping.”