Proceedings for the 1992 International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium. For more information about the symposium, please see the Solid Freeform Fabrication website.

This Proceedings of the Third Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, held at The University of Texas in Austin on August 3-5, 1992, again demonstrates the very active interest in this fully integrated approach to design, materials processing, and manufacturing. The active participation of speakers and attendees from industry that uses SFF, SFF machine manufacturers, universities, and government gives a clear indication of the importance that SFF in its many variants has in the future of manufacturing. As SFF extends itself into structurally sound parts made of polymers, metals, ceramics and their composites, the number of people and institutions involved will continue to grow exponentially. The organizers look forward to this growth and the continued availability of the Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium to serve as a source of technical exchange among the researchers involved in the area.

The Symposium was organized in a manner to allow the multi-disciplinary nature of the SFF research to be presented coherently. To avoid parallel sessions a poster session was organized. The initial session emphasized the computer interfacing required for SFF. This was followed by a session associated with materials related research on SFF. Two sessions were offered describing the latest techniques and modifications of SFF. These sessions were highlighted by a spirited panel discussion led by Robert L. Brown, Emanuel Sachs, and Joel Barlow, on "where is SFF going?" The final session concentrated on machine issues in SFF. The written versions of the presented papers are incorporated into these Proceedings. The editors would like to thank the speakers for their prompt delivery of the manuscripts that allows the timely publication of these Proceedings. The constantly changing state of the SFF art as represented by these Proceedings will serve both the people presently involved in this fruitful area as well as new researchers and users coming into Solid Freeform Fabrication.

The editors would also like to extend a warm thank you to Carolyn Medina for her extensive efforts in the detailed handling of the logistics of the meeting and the Proceedings. We would also like to thank the organizing committee, the speakers, the session chairmen, panel members, and the attendees for their enthusiastic contributions. We look forward to the continued close cooperation of the SFF community in organizing the Symposium. We also want to thank ONR and DARPA for co-sponsoring the Symposium and DTM Corporation for hosting the reception.

Organizing committee: Dick Aubin, United Technologies; Joel Barlow, The University of Texas at Austin; Joseph J. Beaman, The University of Texas at Austin; David L. Bourell, The University of Texas at Austin; Robert L. Brown, The Gillette Company; William Coblenz, DARPA; Richard Crawford, The University of Texas at Austin; Samuel Drake, University of Utah; Steven Fishman, Office of Naval Research; Harris L. Marcus, The University of Texas at Austin; Fritz Prinz, Carnegie Mellon University; Emanuel Sachs, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Greg Sanders, General Motors Corporation; Peter R. Sferro, Ford Motor Company; Ralph Wachter, Office of Naval Research; Michael Wozny, Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute