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Editorial

Special Issue: 3D Printing of Metals

Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117576, Singapore
Submission received: 6 June 2019 / Accepted: 11 June 2019 / Published: 24 June 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printing of Metals)
Additive manufacturing (AM) has emerged as one of the most enabling new manufacturing technique; the topic has been extensively researched worldwide for almost two decades. The unique capabilities and potential of various AM techniques have led to almost homogeneous worldwide research efforts irrespective of international boundaries; such efforts have aimed at developing a thorough and critical understanding to harness the capabilities of AM that may translate to industrial practice. The motive behind these extensive research activities was to:
  • Optimize the use of materials to reduce wastage [1].
  • Optimize the use of manpower to enhance efficiency [1].
  • Optimize the use of resources to limit production time [2].
Both global governments and the private sector have invested billions of dollars to develop AM techniques to realize the goal of enabling sustainability as well as a profitable manufacturing route. All three categories of materials (metals/alloys, polymers, and ceramics) have been researched and practically all applications, whether in engineering or related to biomedical fields, have been equally targeted.
To further this cause, a Special Issue was launched in the MDPI journal ‘Applied Sciences’, which sought original contributions to develop further understanding of this fascinating area of manufacturing. A total of nine articles were accepted after a rigorous peer review process and subsequently published. Overall, the papers addressed:
  • AM process control/optimization including aspects of online monitoring [1,3,4]
  • Comparison studies with existing manufacturing methods to validate the acceptability of AM [5]
  • Product design and development [6]
  • Properties improvement using AM techniques [7]
Many AM techniques have been developed over last two decades; the work done thus far has enabled current researchers to understand both the scientific and technical capabilities and the limitations of these techniques. Accordingly, researchers have been clear in their selection of AM techniques, choices which have been primarily governed by material and end applications.
The articles collected in the present Special Issue indicate an emphasis on:
  • Metal-based materials including stainless steels, magnesium alloys, and nickel-based alloys [4,5,7].
  • Polymer-based materials [8,9].
The industrial sectors which are likely to benefit from the studies presented in this Special Issue include but not limited to the following sectors:
  • Construction
  • Transportation, including automobile and aerospace sectors
  • Nuclear
  • Biomedical
  • Manufacturing
Articles presented in this issue are expected to be of considerable interest to students and researchers working in a wide spectrum of engineering and biomedical fields as well as for a number of existing and new applications.
Finally, I would like to thank all the authors for their excellent contributions to this Issue, to the reviewers for making useful comments to improve the quality of each article, and to the Applied Sciences editorial staff for processing and publishing these articles at their earliest convenience.

References

  1. Li, F.; Chen, S.; Shi, J.; Tian, H.; Zhao, Y. Evaluation and optimization of a hybrid manufacturing process combining wire arc additive manufacturing with milling for the fabrication of stiffened panels. Appl. Sci. 2017, 7, 1233. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  2. Li, F.; Chen, S.; Shi, J.; Zhao, Y.; Tian, H. Thermoelectric cooling-aided bead geometry regulation in wire and arc–based additive manufacturing of thin–walled structures. Appl. Sci. 2018, 8, 207. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  3. Chen, Z.; Zong, X.; Shi, J.; Zhang, X. Online monitoring based on temperature field features and prediction model for selective laser sintering process. Appl. Sci. 2018, 8, 2383. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  4. Han, S.; Zielewski, M.; Martinez Holguin, D.; Michel Parra, M.; Kim, N. Optimization of AZ91D process and corrosion resistance using wire arc additive manufacturing. Appl. Sci. 2018, 8, 1306. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  5. Manninen, M.; Hirvimäki, M.; Matilainen, V.; Salminen, A. Comparison of laser-engraved hole properties between cold-rolled and laser additive manufactured stainless steel sheets. Appl. Sci. 2017, 7, 913. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  6. McEwen, I.; Cooper, D.; Warnett, J.; Kourra, N.; Williams, M.; Gibbons, G. Design & manufacture of a high-performance bicycle crank by additive manufacturing. Appl. Sci. 2018, 8, 1360. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  7. Gao, Y.; Zhou, M. Superior mechanical behavior and fretting wear resistance of 3D-printed inconel 625 superalloy. Appl. Sci. 2018, 8, 2439. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  8. Zhang, S. Degradation classification of 3D printing thermoplastics using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and artificial neural networks. Appl. Sci. 2018, 8, 1224. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  9. Jahan, S.; El-Mounayri, H. A thermomechanical analysis of conformal cooling channels in 3D printed plastic injection molds. Appl. Sci. 2018, 8, 2567. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]

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MDPI and ACS Style

Gupta, M. Special Issue: 3D Printing of Metals. Appl. Sci. 2019, 9, 2563. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9122563

AMA Style

Gupta M. Special Issue: 3D Printing of Metals. Applied Sciences. 2019; 9(12):2563. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9122563

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gupta, Manoj. 2019. "Special Issue: 3D Printing of Metals" Applied Sciences 9, no. 12: 2563. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9122563

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