4. Challenges and prospects for additive manufacturing

Additive manufacturing brings together a number of different manufacturing processes, which enable process engineering equipment to be designed differently from traditional manufacturing solutions. These advanced manufacturing solutions enable the creation of complex geometries and topologies inaccessible to traditional manufacturing technologies. These advantages have been demonstrated in the design and manufacture of new heat exchangers, reactors and reactor internals, distributors and mixers...

Nevertheless, there are still many challenges to be met, not least in terms of design methodology, manufacturing resources and the appropriation of these solutions by both notified bodies and engineering companies.

Most of the methodologies and tools available for sizing such equipment rely on design rules that assume simple geometries and topologies,...