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Additive Manufacturing
Additive manufacturing was first introduced in the 1980's and was defined by the American Society of Testing Materials as “ The process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing methodologies; Synonyms: 3D printing, additive fabrication, additive process, additive techniques, additive layer manufacturing, layer manufacturing, and freeform fabrication.”

Additive manufacturing also known as Rapid prototyping allows for quick prototyping, and complex geometries that would typically take special tooling if developed by traditional machining methods. Additive manufacturing is typically designed and developed from Computer Aided Design software's which are then transformed into one of the recognizable Additive manufacturing files type

Additive manufacturing differs from other machining techniques due to the fact that most other techniques are subtractive forms of manufacturing, subtractive manufacturing is a process that removes material from a solid work piece, examples of subtractive manufacturing machines would be:


 * Mills
 * Lathes
 * Laser Cutter
 * Water Jet
 * Grinders and Sanders

The advantages of additive manufacturing versus conventional manufacturing techniques are shorter lead times of prototypes and outsourced parts, less material consumed and wasted, cheaper prototyping and small production part cost.

SLA
Stereolithography uses lasers to cure a photopolymer resin (photopolymer resin's are a polymer whose structural properties are changed when exposed UV light) layer by layer to create a three dimensional part.

FDM
Fused Deposition Modeling uses plastics such as ABS and Polycarbonate heated past its melting point and extruded through a nozzle in the shape of the intended part in a layer by layer process.

SLS
Selective Laser Sintering uses a high powered laser to liquefy particles of material such as plastics metals and ceramics and fuse them together to create a three dimensional object.

Sorry, I have interjected an opinion to prove a point where I did not need to do so, Additive Manufacturing is the process of creating 3D objects through the addition of materials, this could be any form not solely in a 3D printed form. An example of this would be that Welding is a form of additive manufacturing because you are adding material to create a new 3D object, but in no way is that 3D printing. Yes, I would agree that many aspects of 3D printing and additive manufacturing are the same and they are closely related but to consider them the same thing would be an injustice to this community and its readers.

Organizations who specialize in these topics consider them different and provide definitions for both.

https://wohlersassociates.com/terms.html