A Survey on the Integration between Additive Manufacturing and Maintenance

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is an emerging paradigm that is affecting several industrial fields. Many innovations have been introduced to optimize and improve the production efficiency by means of new technologies. Additive manufacturing (AM) is an enabling technology of I4.0 that is leading to innovations related to the production systems, but companies are looking to AM also for maintenance purposes. The aim of this study is to find the existing innovations that link AM and maintenance and to discuss on their benefits and feasibility. A systematic literature review (SLR) approach has been used to this purpose. The outcome of the SLR highlights that there are three main fields in which AM technologies can be very useful for maintenance purposes.