Rapid Manufacturing- Classification and Recent Development

Rapid Prototyping is an emerging technology in the field of advance manufacturing process/technique in which components/parts/models are rapidly created from the visual world (CAD model) to real world with minimum human interaction. Since the manufacturing starts with the creation of geometric data, either as a 3D solid using a CAD model, or 2D layers using a 3D scanning device therefore it is also referred as Layer Manufacturing, Material Deposition Manufacturing, Additive Manufacturing, Solid Freeform Manufacturing and Three-Dimensional Printing. This is one of the best techniques to manufacture prototypes which may be used for physical visualization, making some typical and intrinsic geometry. For the same requirement, in most of the cases it is very cost effective, flexible and time saving than any other available manufacturing technique. Therefore it is the most appropriate technique to manufacture or to recreate components/parts/model in different engineering viz. aerospace, product and tool development. A lot of new developments are occurring in the field of Rapid Prototyping Techniques in recent years. This paper also provides the development, trendsand applications of the Rapid Prototyping Techniques. The authors cover various available literatures to prepare concise and progressive review. There are various components which are associated with RP technique and some of them are listed in this paper.