Applications of a hybrid manufacturing process for fabrication of metallic structures

Purpose – This paper sets out to summarize the current research, development, and integration of a hybrid process to produce high‐temperature metallic materials. It seeks to present the issues and solutions, including the understanding of the direct laser deposition process, and automated process planning.Design/methodology/approach – Research in simulation and modeling, process development, integration, and actual part building for hybrid processing are discussed.Findings – Coupling additive and subtractive processes into a single workstation, the integrated process, or hybrid process, can produce metal parts with machining accuracy and surface finish. Therefore, the hybrid process is potentially a very competitive process to fabricate metallic structures.Originality/value – Rapid prototyping technology has been of interest to various industries that are looking for a process to produce/build a part directly from a CAD model in a short time. Among them, the direct laser deposition process is one of the f...