The Role of Additive Manufacturing in the Era of Industry 4.0

TLDR

Industry 4.0 promotes intelligent production systems and advanced information technologies, with additive manufacturing seen as a key component. The paper reviews AM technologies, classifies current knowledge and trends, and highlights its potential uses in Industry 4.0. The review focuses on material science advances, process development, and design enhancements in AM.

Abstract

The latest industrial revolution, Industry 4.0, is encouraging the integration of intelligent production systems and advanced information technologies. Additive manufacturing (AM) is considered to be an essential ingredient in this new movement. In this paper, a comprehensive review on AM technologies is presented together with both its contributions to Industry 4.0. The review focusses on three important aspects of AM: recent advances on material science, process development, and enhancements on design consideration. The main objective of the paper is to classify the current knowledge (and technological trends) on AM and to highlight its potential uses.