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Mechanical Engineering vocabulary · Manufacturing Processes

Additive manufacturing

Meaning in mechanical engineering, with examples

nounCommon term

In mechanical engineering, additive manufacturing means: Making parts by building them up layer by layer from a digital model, in plastic or metal. It is the industrial term for 3D printing.

In Turkish: eklemeli imalat, katmanlı imalat, 3B baskı

How it is used

Used for prototypes, jigs and fixtures, complex lightweight parts and small series. Common technologies are FDM, SLA, SLS and metal powder bed fusion. Engineers talk about build time, layer height, support structures and post-processing. Often shortened to AM.

Example sentences

  1. Additive manufacturing let us combine six welded parts into one printed bracket.

  2. Metal additive manufacturing is still too expensive for this volume.

Common collocations

  • metal additive manufacturing
  • 3D printing
  • build time
  • support structures
  • layer height
  • prototypeAn early working version of a product, built to test the design, check fit and function, and find problems before production starts.
  • CADShort for computer-aided design: software used to create 3D models and 2D drawings of parts and assemblies, such as SolidWorks, CATIA, Siemens NX or AutoCAD.
  • injection moldingA process that makes plastic parts by injecting molten plastic under high pressure into a closed steel mold, where it cools and hardens.
  • machiningShaping a part by cutting away material with tools, for example by turning, milling, drilling or grinding, usually on a lathe or a CNC machine.

More terms: Manufacturing Processes

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