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      Preface

      Additive manufacturing (AM) promises to change the entire manufacturing enterprise over the next two decades. No longer limited to prototyping and low‐volume manufacturing, AM is being adopted for economies of scale without compromising economies of scope. The need for the digitization of manufacturing, on‐demand personalized manufacturing, distributed production, and rapid production in the event of crises have all elevated the position of AM in the medical and engineering sectors. AM is now a major research target for industrialized countries as they seek to regain leadership in advanced manufacturing through innovation. The global economy is on the verge of the next industrial revolution and sector after sector is pulling away from traditional, conventional production methods to engage in and utilize AM. However, this promise does come with many challenges, particularly for metal AM. Research and development activities are progressing at full steam to address multiple technical challenges, such as speed and productivity, quality assurance, standards, and end‐to‐end workflow.

      A major skill sets gap currently hinders efforts to tackle these challenges. For companies seeking to embrace AM, this gap translates into a limited availability of expertise to draw an entry strategy to the AM industry. The wider adoption of AM will require overcoming the limited foundational understanding of AM that currently exists within the workforce. A thorough understanding of AM capabilities is necessary for technical experts to accurately communicate the pros and cons of AM to decision‐makers, while preventing misconceptions and misinformation about AM capabilities. Currently, the knowledge gap is significantly impacting progress in the sector, as companies have difficulties in recruiting AM experts to help them develop effective designs for AM as well as meaningful business cases for metal AM.

This book is designed to help academia and industry move toward filling this gap. Enhancing AM skills will require the development of foundational knowledge of AM starting at the undergraduate level. To our knowledge, there is currently no textbook available that links the basics of fundamental undergraduate Engineering courses with metal AM processes. There is a clear need to customize undergraduate concepts in technical courses related to design, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, and control, with respect to AM applications. Additionally, business‐ and management‐oriented courses should include AM to facilitate the consideration of AM in conjunction with life cycle assessment and business model developments among students.

      The development of this book was motivated by our desire to provide foundational material for a core undergraduate course in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, and we envision its use in graduate courses as well. Universities globally are revising their curriculum to incorporate AM‐related courses. This textbook may provide an introductory platform to be adopted in such courses to promote an appreciation for and grasp of AM among both undergraduate and graduate students. This book may also fill a gap for engineers working outside academia who want to appreciate AM processes by identifying links between traditional core physics and engineering concepts courses and AM. The book provides a step‐by‐step understanding of metal AM and a solid foundation of the topic for readers, who will subsequently be well equipped to explore AM research in greater depth.

      For a broad range of readers, this book sheds light on various key metal AM technologies, focusing on basic physics and modeling. This textbook is not a literature survey, nor is it intended for readers with no engineering background. In contrast, it is an introduction to basic physical concepts and phenomena of metal AM processes and their applications. Relevant foundational concepts, such as energy deposition, powder bed fusion, and binder jetting processes, are explained in‐depth and illustrated by case studies throughout the book. Additionally, two emerging processes for metal AM: material extrusion and material jetting, are described. Basic design for AM (DfAM) and quality assurance principles are also covered.

      We would like to express our sincere gratitude to several people who helped in the preparation of this book. Special thanks to Francis Dibia, Ali Keshavarzkermani, Zhidong Zhang, Yuze Huang, Mazyar Ansari, Andrew Barlow, Misha Karpinska, Donovan Kwong, and Eniife Elebute, who helped us with some materials and produced some of the figures, as attributed in the book. In addition, we acknowledge all organizations, publishers, authors, and companies that permitted use of their figures, plots, and texts; they have been cited accordingly throughout the book. Last but not least, thanks to our families, who make it all worthwhile.

      Like any first edition, this textbook may contain errors and typos. We openly

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