Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as “3D printing,” now provides the ability to have an almost fully digital chain from part design through manufacture and service. This “digital thread” can bring great benefits in improving designs, processes, materials, operations, and the ability to predict failure in a way that maximizes safety and minimizes cost and downtime. Unsettled Aspects of the Digital Thread in Additive Manufacturing discusses what the interplay between AM and a digital thread in the mobility industry would look like, the potential benefits and costs, the hurdles that need to be overcome for the combination to be useful, and how an organization can answer these questions to scope and benefit from the combination. Click here to access The Mobility Frontier: Metals, Polymers, or Composites Click here to access the full SAE EDGETM Research Report portfolio. https://doi.org/10.4271/EPR2021026

In the early days, there were significant limitations to the build size of laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) additive manufacturing (AM) machines. However, machine builders have addressed that drawback by introducing larger L-PBF machines with expansive build volumes. As these machines grow, their size capability approaches that of directed energy deposition (DED) machines. Concurrently, DED machines have gained additional axes of motion which enable increasingly complex part geometries—resulting in near-overlap in capabilities at the large end of the L-PBF build size. Additionally, competing technologies, such as binder jet AM and metal material extrusion, have also increased in capability, albeit with different starting points. As a result, the lines of demarcation between different processes are becoming blurred. Internal Boundaries of Metal Additive Manufacturing: Future Process Selection examines the overlap between three prominent powder-based technologies and outlines an approach that a product team can follow to determine the most appropriate process for current and future applications. Click here to access The Mobility Frontier: Metals, Polymers, or Composites Click here to access the full SAE EDGETM Research Report portfolio. https://doi.org/10.4271/EPR2022006

Now that metal additive manufacturing (MAM), also known as “metal 3D printing,” has seen its first successful implementations across the mobility industry, the question is whether it will continue to grow beyond these initial applications or remain a niche manufacturing process. Moving to broader applications will require overcoming several barriers, namely cost and rate, size, and criticality limitations. Recent progress in MAM indicates that these barriers are beginning to come down, pointing to continued growth in applications for MAM through the end of the decade and beyond. Metal Additive Manufacturing in the Mobility Industry: Looking into 2033 discusses the obstacles to future MAM growth, how they can be conquered, and what its role in the mobility industry will look like in 2033. Click here to access The Mobility Frontier: Metals, Polymers, or Composites Click here to access the full SAE EDGETM Research Report portfolio. https://doi.org/10.4271/EPR2023022

To grow the application space of polymer additive manufacturing (AM), the industry must provide an offering with improved mechanical properties. Several entities are working towards introducing continuous fibers embedded into either a thermoplastic or thermoset resin system. This approach can enable significant improvement in mechanical properties and could be what is needed to open new and exciting applications within the aerospace industry. Introduction of Continuous Fiber Reinforced Polymer: A New Additive Manufacturing Path for Aerospace examines a couple of unsettled issues that are beginning to come to light regarding these materials and focuses on the ability to design and provide robust structural analysis for continuous fiber reinforced polymer AM—unsung aspects that can make or break this new technology as it finds its way into the aerospace market. Without solutions to them, adoption by the aerospace industry will be limited to point design applications, thus constraining the technology to being nothing more than a specialized tool. Click here to access The Mobility Frontier: Metals, Polymers, or Composites Click here to access the full SAE EDGETM Research Report portfolio. https://doi.org/10.4271/EPR2023019

As metal additive manufacturing (MAM), also known as "metal 3D printing,” moves from prototype to low-rate and high-rate production for increasingly critical applications for more industries, many product teams are tasked with determining design properties for the first time in many years. Not only is it necessary to determine basic material properties, but it is also necessary to accommodate new geometries and design concepts as well. While some of the methods and approaches are common to other product forms, others are unique to MAM. Determining Design Properties for Metal Additive Manufacturing in the Mobility Industry covers the challenges in determining design properties and provides a comparison with existing technologies, along with an example and recommendations for future work. Click here to access The Mobility Frontier: Metals, Polymers, or Composites Click here to access the full SAE EDGETM Research Report portfolio.. https://doi.org/10.4271/EPR2023004

The manufacturing industry will reap significant benefits from encouraging the development of digital manufacturing science and technology. Digital Manufacturing Science uses theorems, illustrations and tables to introduce the definition, theory architecture, main content, and key technologies of digital manufacturing science. Readers will be able to develop an in-depth understanding of the emergence and the development, the theoretical background, and the techniques and methods of digital manufacturing science. Furthermore, they will also be able to use the basic theories and key technologies described in Digital Manufacturing Science to solve practical engineering problems in modern manufacturing processes. Digital Manufacturing Science is aimed at advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, academic researchers and researchers in the manufacturing industry. It allows readers to integrate the theories and technologies described with their own research works, and to propose new ideas and new methods to improve the theory and application of digital manufacturing science.

SAE EDGE Research Reports provide state-of-the-art and state-of-industry examinations of the most significant topics in mobility engineering. SAE EDGE contributors are experts from research, academia, and industry who have come together to explore and define the most critical advancements, challenges, and future direction in areas such as vehicle automation, unmanned aircraft, IoT and connectivity, cybersecurity, advanced propulsion, and advanced manufacturing.