Additive Manufacturing Applications in Industry 4.0: A Review

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a set of technologies and are vital to fulfilling different requirements of Industry 4.0. So, there is a need to study different additive manufacturing applications toward its achievement. From the Scopus database, different research articles on “Industry 4.0” and “additive manufacturing applications in Industry 4.0” are identified and studied through a bibliometric analysis. It shows that there is an increasing trend of publications in this new area. Industry 4.0 has entered new markets which focus on customer delight by adding values in product and services. It supports automation, interoperability, actionable insights and information transparency. There are different components vital to implement Industry 4.0 requirements. Through this extensive literature review based work, we identified different components of Industry 4.0 and explained the critical ones briefly. Finally, 13 important AM applications in Industry 4.0 are identified. The main limitation of the AM manufactured part is of comparable low strength and associated quality, coupled with a high cost of the printing machine system. In this upcoming industrial revolution, AM is a crucial technology which has become the main component of product innovation and development. This disruptive technology can fulfil different challenges in the future manufacturing system and help the industry to produce innovative products. For this futuristic manufacturing system, additive manufacturing is an upcoming paradigm, and Industry 4.0 will use its potential to achieve required goals.