Additive Manufacturing, 3D Printing, Rapid Prototyping

According to ISO/ASTM we currently have seven processes for additively manufacturing products. Originally this technology was stereolithography (vat photopolymerization) which was shortly followed by fused deposition modeling (extrusion based) and also selective laser sintering (powder bed fusion). Being able to take the quickly advancing electronic representations of products from computer aided design (CAD) software directly to machines that could produce the part without tooling opened a whole new approach to product development.