General aspects

Figure 1 , which summarizes the main classes of processes used, illustrates the three main routes for manufacturing metal parts, depending on the starting state of the metal material:

• molding from the liquid state;

• shaping from one or more solid parts. This process can be subdivided into forming, or shaping without removal of material; machining, or shaping with removal of material; and assembly, where two or more parts are joined together (please refer to the articles in the section on Working with materials – Assembly in the Mechanics treatise);...