Review on Machine Designs of Material Extrusion based Additive Manufacturing (AM) Systems - Status-Quo and Potential Analysis for Future AM Systems

Abstract Low-cost production of large-scale parts, also known as big area additive manufacturing (BAAM) is one big challenge of Additive Manufacturing (AM) and drives developments of new machine designs. In recent years, the machine development of material extrusion (ME) shows approaches, which focus on AM machines with different kinematic concepts. Starting from classic machine tool structures with 3-axis to robot systems with multidirectional kinematics, there is a great need of a concept evaluation for AM. This study describes the trends of current AM machine designs and investigates the potential of machine structures. The procedure follows the principles of a case study and highlights the strengths and weaknesses of existing system designs.