A comprehensive comparative review: welding and additive manufacturing

Conventional welding heat sources (electron beam, plasma, arc, and laser) are widely used in metal additive manufacturing (AM), where melted and fused materials are drawn into desired shape, size and structure. Despite welding and additive manufacturing using similar procedures, AM has been primarily done using new computer numeric control CNC technologies, permitting the manufacturing of the higher-resolution component than ever before. On the other hand, numerous working tactics utilized in AM variations are quite similar to welding. Juxtaposing the two will show how the knowledge obtained in technology and welding science over the previous decades can be used for the rapidly emerging field of metal additive manufacturing. This paper depicts the review of the differences and similarities of both the processes in accordance to the processes, surface finishes, deposition rate, microstructure, macrostructure and mechanical properties.