Digital aesthetic of new products obtained by selective laser melting process

Additive Manufacturing processes are rapidly evolving in order to enable their increasing diffusion in all those industrial contexts where a flexible, customized and low volume production is needed. The research is focused on processes that use metal powders. Such manufacturing techniques allow achieving illusory shapes free from any geometrical and productive constraints, thus fostering a new conception of production based on the digital aesthetic. This revolution is expressed by the digitalization of manufacturing processes which opens the way to a direct production from 3D model to the real object and therefore to a new way of thinking, designing and producing objects. This new production requires also new rules and guidelines for a product design. The purpose of work is to illustrate the state of the art of selective laser melting techniques based on metal deposition, highlighting the critical issues such technical limitations and the designing rules for a mass production. It is necessary to point out sensible future industrial applications, the social impact that this technology can have.