A radical change (Feenstra, Holmer, Tromans, Moos and Mieritz 2003) in manufacturing is starting to occur. The Rapid Manufacturing, which can be defined as "the use of an additive manufacturing process to construct parts that are used directly as finished products or components", is set to supersede many current uses of moulds and dies. Rapid Manufacturing (Wohlers 2003) is based on new additive manufacturing techniques that produce fully functional parts directly from a 3D CAD model without the use of tooling. The ambitious scope of the European Initiative CUSTOM-FIT, a Framework 6 Integrated Project, is to create a fully integrated system for the design, production and supply of individualized custom-products. Within the cases under study there are strong connections to sporting articles. This project is being funded by the European Commission over the next four years and a half and will become central to European research concerning Rapid Manufacturing (RM).
