Process planning for additive and subtractive manufacturing technologies

In recent years, techniques that combine different manufacturing processes such as additive and subtractive technologies are gaining significant attention. This is due to their ability to capitalise on consolidated advantages of combining these processes. However, there is limited process planning methods available to effectively synthesise additive and subtractive manufacturing technologies. In this paper a framework termed iAtractive is proposed to enable the strengths of additive and subtractive technologies to be combined with the inspection process. Based on iAtractive a process planning system, Re-Plan has been developed which shows the capabilities of combined process manufacture through a number of case studies.