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Additive manufacturingÕs (AM) unique capabilities empower this new technology with potential that is capable of revolutionizing the manufacturing industry and the way many parts and components are produced. It has the capability to make shapes and geometries impossible to obtain by any other conventional technologies, as well as to produce refined microstructures resulting from rapid cooling, which provide for productsÕ characteristics unattainable by conventional methods of manufacture. Although various AM methods have been tested in a laboratory environment for a number of years, only recently are they being accepted and implemented by the manufacturing industry. A considerable interest in AM technologies is reflected in the increase in research activities at universities as well as government and industrial laboratories, and in a large number of conferences and publications.