Introduction -- Fundamentals -- Component selection -- Creative methods -- Restrictive methods -- Machine setup -- Validation and quality assurance -- Project examples -- Business models -- Is additive manufacturing worth it?.

Although additive manufacturing is a relatively young discipline, the effects that can be achieved with the various additive technologies in terms of efficient product and manufacturing process optimization are of outstanding importance. These processes offer innovative and versatile opportunities for accelerated product design and advanced design and manufacturing process optimization. In addition, the use of nature-based technologies also makes it possible to manufacture components with extreme complexity and internal structures that were very difficult or impossible to produce using conventional methods. Lightweight design and energy savings, also in the product life cycle, can thus be realized with the same stability and load-bearing capacity. This book describes how the potential of additive manufacturing can be used specifically in product development to design highly efficient products. For this purpose, the contents are linked holistically in the sense of development processesof product creation. The Authors Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Roland Lachmayer is head of the Institute for Product Development at Leibniz Universität Hannover. He is a senator of Leibniz University, member of the scientific board of the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. and managing director of the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Produktentwicklung e.V. Since 2019, Prof. Lachmayer has headed the Additive Manufacturing working group of the Cluster of Excellence PhoenixD. Dr.-Ing. Tobias Ehlers is Group Leader for "Printed Effects" at the Institute for Product Development at Leibniz Universität Hannover. Current research activities are the design of dynamically loaded structural parts produced by additive manufacturing. Research focuses on structural optimisation of particle-damped structural components and multi-material manufacturing. Dr.-Ing. René Bastian Lippert is Group Leader for Mechatronic development at HiltiEntwicklungsgesellschaft mbH. Until 2021, he was responsible for the industrialization of additive manufacturing at Hilti AG. Before that, he led the group "Methods for Additive Manufacturing" at the Institute for Product Development at Leibniz Universität Hannover.