Conventional and Additively Manufactured Stainless Steels: A Review

For the last three decades, enormous manufacturing processes have been widely employed in the field of transportation (aviation, automobile, and marine) as well as various industrial sectors. Among the invented techniques, conventional manufacturing plays a versatile and cost-effective role, but additive manufacturing (AM) possesses a more significant advantage in handling complicated parts or complex geometrical structures. The conventional processes were used from ancient times until the development of other advanced techniques. In the recent development of technology, AM technology has shown a tremendous change in the manufacturing field. The process of development in AM began with polymers, then to composites, and advanced to nanocomposites continuously. AM provides a waste-free production management system with enhanced processes. Therefore, this detailed and compendious review describes the different stainless steels fabricated through conventional and AM techniques. It is evident that AM proves better than other several conventional techniques by three-dimensional (3D) printing of quality and complex stainless-steel components that are impossible to manufacture through other methods. Notwithstanding, there is still a need to improve AM technique by reducing the manufacturing cost, supporting mass production, and printing large stainless-steel components. With an increase in the invention of various efficient state-of-the-art engineering software, robots in manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and smart manufacturing, the aforementioned drawbacks of AM technique/3D printing of various stainless-steel structures will be soon eradicated.