A review of hybrid manufacturing processes – state of the art and future perspectives

Abstract

Today, hybrid manufacturing technology has drawn significant interests from both academia and industry due to the capability to make products in a more efficient and productive way. Although there is no specific consensus on the definition of the term 'hybrid processes', researchers have explored a number of approaches to combine different manufacturing processes with the similar objectives of improving surface integrity, increasing material removal rate, reducing tool wear, reducing production time and extending application areas. Thus, hybrid processes open up new opportunities and applications for manufacturing various components which are not able to be produced economically by processes on their own. This review paper starts with the classification of current manufacturing processes based on processes being defined as additive, subtractive, transformative, joining and dividing. Definitions of hybrid processes from other researchers in the literature are then introduced. The major part of this paper reviews existing hybrid processes reported over the past two decades. Finally, this paper attempts to propose possible definitions of hybrid processes along with the authors' classification, followed by discussion of their developments, limitations and future research needs.

A decision support methodology for embodiment design and process chain selection for hybrid manufacturing platforms

“…Hybrid manufacturing presents a challenge to develop commonality between the highly varied processes. The review of hybrid manufacturing processes by Zhu et al [1] concludes that there is a need for new process planning methods and for new modelling representations of hybrid process capabilities This paper presents a novel coherent integrated methodology that formalises the integration of manufacturing capability data and product design data for hybrid manufacturing platforms. A case study demonstrates the use of the methodology for a state-of-the-art platform that utilises the widest range of process classifications incorporated in a single platform.…”

“…There is growing industrial and academic interest and the number of commercial hybrid additive and subtractive processes has significantly increased since the late 2000s [6]. In the papers of Zhu et al [1] and Chu et al [2], only two of the reviewed studies considered processes from more than two categories [7,8]. Hybrid manufacturing platforms utilising processes from all four categories represent state-of-the-art research [9,10].…”

“…Zhu et al [1] reviewed hybrid manufacturing and discussed its definition. They classified processes as additive, subtractive, joining and transformative and considered hybrid manufacturing as a combination of two or more manufacturing operations from different classifications.…”

Hybrid 3D printing by bridging micro/nano processes

“…Concerns about fabrication difficulty have increased, e.g., the processing of difficult-to-cut material [83] or bio-material [84]. It was once thought impossible to use conventional manufacturing techniques; however, researchers have investigated solutions to the problems involved, typically using hybrid manufacturing processes [85].…”

Hybrid manufacturing in micro/nano scale: A Review

“…3 Zhu et al reviewed hybrid manufacturing or combined hybrid process in 2013. 4 In this review, hybrid processes were classified into hybrid manufacturing, which includes additive and subtractive processes, subtractive and joining processes, additive and transformative processes, and subtractive and transformative processes, and into sub-hybrid manufacturing, which includes additive manufacturing, subtractive manufacturing, and transformative manufacturing. This classification, therefore, considers geometrical issues.…”