Recent Advances in Additive Manufacturing Processes, Monitoring, and Thermal Applications for Advanced Industrial Components

Additive manufacturing (AM) is no longer just a prototyping technique but has become a serious technology for the production of very complex industrial components with high performance properties, which is still in the process of reaching lightweight construction standards. Additive manufacturing (AM) is now no longer only a prototyping technique, but has become a serious manufacturing technique, which is still being developed to reach lightweight construction standards, in order to produce very complex components with high performance properties. This review summarizes the latest advances of AM processes, in process monitoring, in thermal applications, materials characterisation and in industrial implementation. Significant progress in powder bed fusion, directed energy deposition and associated deposition technologies have facilitated the processing of complex architectures, high melting point materials, multi material structures, and functionally graded architectures. Specific focus is on thermal management by conformal cooling channels, optimized heat exchangers and integrated thermal structures in aerospace, turbine, automotive, medical and energy industry. Machine learning and predictive modelling, in combination with the digital twin and closed loop control, are demonstrated to be opportunities for adaptive parameter optimisation and increased process certainty. Thermal analysis, X ray diffraction, electron backscatter diffraction, metallography and porosity assessment are also deemed as essential tools for establishing links between processing conditions, microstructure, thermal behaviour, and final component performance. Although great strides have been made, there are still limitations in the form of residual stress, porosity, thermal distortion, processing variability, high equipment costs, post processing requirements, scalability, data accessibility and certification.