Twin-Boundary Framework for Additive Manufacturing

An industrial decision-tree designed to classify part designs and distinguish additive manufacturing from hybrid additive manufacturing is given.

Author: Sanjay Kumar

📖 Origin of the framework: Hybrid Additive Manufacturing Debate.

📊 The Framework Flowchart

Additive-Manufacturing-Decision-Tree

🔍 How it Works

It relies on twin-boundary framework for additive manufacturing (AM), given in the aforementioned book. It has the following two boundaries:

Boundary 1 (B1):

A complex shape is preferred. A shape is complex if it has at least one microfeature and an overhang.

Boundary 2 (B2):

Pre-processing, interlayer processing, and post-processing are not meant to change size and shape. If they change, the resulting process is hybrid AM.

💡 Explanation of Reasons mentioned in Flowchart

Reason 7: A complex shape is preferred in AM only when it is not sustainable and cost-effective to be made in conventional manufacturing.
Reason 8: If a substrate is not separated from a part, it means the substrate is a component of the final part. It means AM is used to modify a pre-processed substrate, which is hybrid AM.
Reason 11: If post-processing is used as a strategy, it is pure AM. For example, if it is used to decrease the size to eliminate surface roughness, for which material allowance is given, it is pure AM.
Reason 13: For example, if post-processing is used to remove material because a shape could not be formed by AM, it is hybrid AM.

🚀 Citation

If you use this framework or flowchart in your research, please reference the original text:

Citation: S. Kumar (2026) Hybrid Additive Manufacturing Debate, Scholarly Dialogues Press,https://doi.org/10.31224/7951.

⚖️ License

The documentation and flowchart logic in this repository are licensed under the MIT License (for software implementations) and Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) (for text and media).

You are free to build software based on this framework, provided that proper attribution to the original author and the book Hybrid Additive Manufacturing Debate is maintained.