3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), are processes used to synthesize a three-dimensional object[1] in which successive layers of material are formed under computer control to create the object.[2] These objects can be of almost any shape or geometry and are produced from digital model data 3D model or other electronic data source such as an Additive Manufacturing File (AMF) file.

Futurologist Jeremy Rifkin[3] claimed that 3D printing or AM signals the beginning of a third industrial revolution,[4] succeeding the production line assembly that dominated manufacturing starting in the late 19th century.

The term 3D printing has its origin sense, 3D printing in reference to a process that deposits a binder material onto a powder bed with inkjet printer heads layer by layer. More recently, the term is being used in popular vernacular to encompass a wider variety of additive manufacturing techniques. United States and global Technical standards use the official term additive manufacturing for this broader sense. ISO/ASTM52900-15 defines seven categories of AM processes within its meaning: Binder Jetting, Directed Energy Deposition, Material Extrusion, Material Jetting, Powder Bed Fusion, Sheet Lamination and Vat Photopolymerization