In the last decade, additive manufacturing has gained significant interest for direct part
production and started to change the way companies manufacture products; even in very
demanding sectors like aerospace. The biggest challenge for a wider industrial acceptance still
stands as the need for more reliable, repeatable and precise machines for additive manufacturing.
This paper presents a comprehensive benchmarking study for the selection of an additive
manufacturing machine for powder-bed metal fusion process, i.e. Selective Laser Melting or
Direct Metal Laser Sintering or Laser Cusing. Four different machine vendors for the same
technology to be employed for aeroengine part manufacturing using Inconel 625 powder have
been involved for comparing different machine specifications. Many aspects such as dimensional
accuracy, surface quality, need of support structures, density, hardness and process limits
(minimum wall thickness, overhang surfaces, inclinations and curvatures, etc.) are addressed in
the paper. The state-of-the-art in machines for powder-bed metal fusion process is presented
aiming at understanding the current limitations of the technology available today.Mechanical Engineerin
