Near net shape
Appearance
Near net shape is an industrial manufacturing technique. The name implies that the initial production of the item is very close to the final (net) shape, reducing the need for surface finishing. Reducing traditional finishing such as machining or grinding eliminates more than two-thirds of the production costs in some industries.
Processes
The following are various near-net-shape processes categorized by material.
Ceramics
- Gel casting
- Ceramic injection molding
- Spray forming
- Structural ceramic production
Composites
Plastics
Metals
- Casting[citation needed]
- Powder metallurgy
- Linear friction welding[citation needed]
- Metal injection molding
- Rapid prototyping
- Spray forming
- Superplastic forming
- Cold forming
- Semi-solid metal casting
- Photochemical machining