Special Issue on Tribology of Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) enables the rapid fabrication of parts with complex geometries that cannot be easily manufactured with traditional methods. While originally limited to rapid prototyping, recent advances in AM technology also enable direct fabrication of functional end-use parts in, e.g., aerospace, medical devices, and military applications. However, the transition from rapid prototyping to fabricating end-use parts has also revealed technology barriers, including surface quality, accuracy, part variability, and uncertainty about the process–structure–property relationship, to name a few. Crucially, fundamental questions about friction, wear, and lubrication of AM parts have led to substantial research interest in the tribology community. This Special Issue provides significant value to the tribology community by highlighting recent advances of tribology research related to AM, defining the state-of-the-art of tribology knowledge, and framing the challenges and opportunities for future tribology research in this exciting field. It is a collection of 17 research/review papers covering a wide range of state-of-the-art topics in the tribology of additive manufacturing. All the papers have undergone a rigorous and anonymous peer-review process.