Modelling of Production Processes: A Theoretical Approach to Additive Manufacturing

The demands for productivity and quality in additive manufacturing are rising. This growing need for optimization has led to vast amounts of experiments with the goal of finding new correlations between process parameters and production outcome. The objective of this research project is to generate a basic theoretical approach for a process model of additive manufacturing with metals. Taking into consideration how models for traditional technologies have evolved, a methodical approach was developed for the identification of effect mechanisms and key factors in the production process. The approach supports the future development of a process model, planning of experiments and may lead to enhancing process knowledge (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.