Additive Manufacturing from the Point of View of Materials Research

Concentrated on additive manufacturing, this chapter discusses materials research in the Manufacturing 4.0 context. In addition to providing a brief review on stimuli-responsive materials and their applications under Manufacturing 4.0, this chapter also looks ahead and discusses in detail the recent developments in additive manufacturing of machines, particularly machines based on the special characteristics of certain stimuli-responsive materials, such as thermally activated shape memory alloys, magnetic shape memory alloys and magnetocaloric materials. Furthermore, this chapter emphasizes possible future directions for the additive manufacturing of metallic materials in general.