ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOK OFAdvanced Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the strength of any industrialized nation. The term ?advanced manufacturing? encompasses many of the developments in the manufacturing field during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including high tech products and processes and Clean, green, and flexible manufacturing, among others. Advanced manufacturing is the use of innovative technology to improve products or processes. The Advanced Manufacturing entity makes extensive use of computer, high precision, and information technologies integrated with a high performance workforce in a production system capable of furnishing a heterogeneous mix of products in small or large volumes with both the efficiency of mass production and the flexibility of custom manufacturing in order to respond quickly to customer demands.

Illustrated Handbook of Advanced Manufacturing attempts to address the various issues associated with non-traditional methods for evaluation of advanced computer-integrated technologies in manufacturing. Manufacturing around the world is changing rapidly. The processes, equipment and systems used to design and produce everything from automobiles to computer chips are undergoing dramatic changes in response to new customer needs, competitive challenges and emerging technologies. Manufacturing technology provides the productive tools that power a growing, stable economy and a rising standard of living. These tools create the means to provide an effective national defense. They make possible modern communications, affordable agricultural products, efficient transportation, innovative medical procedures, space exploration and the everyday conveniences we take for granted. Over the last half century, some of the most drastic changes to the industry have been a consequence of a redistribution of manufacturing skills and hubs in the global supply chain. Advanced Manufacturing is not a static entity. What was considered advanced decades ago is now traditional, and what is advanced today will be considered mainstream in the future. Most simply, Advanced Manufacturing is about innovating products and processes in the manufacturing cycle to operate more productively. Some research talks about utilizing technology to gain these innovations, others attribute the changes to the role of the customer in the manufacturing process. Regardless of the reason, it is clear that the global economy is demanding more from manufacturing, and advanced manufacturing seems to be the answer. Advanced Manufacturing is not limited to emerging technologies; rather, it is composed of efficient, productive, highly integrated, tightly controlled processes across a spectrum of globally manufacturers and suppliers. The Illustrated Handbook of Advanced Manufacturing provides comprehensive introduction to advanced manufacturing and systems. This Handbook is specially developed for students and researchers wishing to learn manufacturing, materials and research techniques in order to engage in innovative and new product development.