Hybrid Manufacturing – The Best of Both Worlds

Additive manufacturing of metal components provides a freedom of design for heavy duty components that's otherwise unfeasible. However, precision and surface quality of additively manufactured structures are rarely sufficient for direct application and therefore require subtractive postprocessing steps. This combination of additive and subtractive manufacturing processes is often referred to as hybrid manufacturing. This paper provides an overview of current research topics in the field of metal based hybrid – additive and subtractive – manufacturing. It furthermore presents the findings of an analysis that identifies research and development efforts in this area on a global level, helping to identify key players and innovation drivers