Hybrid Manufacturing System Design and Development

Reliable and economical fabrication of metallic parts with complicated geometries is of considerable interest for the aerospace, medical, automotive, tooling, and consumer products industries. In an effort to shorten the time-to-market, decrease the manufacturing process chain, and cut production costs of products produced by these industries, research has focused on the integration of multiple unit manufacturing processes into one machine. The end goal is to reduce production space, time, and manpower requirements. Integrated systems are increasingly being recognized as a means to meet these goals. Many factors are accelerating the push toward integrated systems. These include the need for reduced equipment and process cost, shorter processing times, reduced inspection time, and reduced handling. On the other hand, integrated systems require a higher level of synthesis than does a single process. Therefore, development of integrated processes will generally be more complex than that of individual unit manufacturing processes, but it could provide simplified, lower-cost manufacturing.