This volume represents a part of the final documentation of the project, "Layer Manufacturing as a Tool for Reduction of Product Lead Time", called NOR-LMT, founded by Nordic Fund for Technology and Industrial Development, the national research councils in the four countries, and industry. The NOR-LMT project was designed in order to adapt Layer Manufacturing Technology (LMT) to industrial use, and to transfer the technology to the Nordic industry. This intends to develop design procedures, to adapt the different processes to cost efficient use, and to promote industry to take the new and promising technology into practical use.

Manufacturing today means that more complex products must be brought to the market at a dramatically reduced time. In order to achieve this, efficient tools must be used such as CAD/CAM in combination with the new fast field of rapid prototyping. Prototyping can be a potential bottle neck in a product development activity. A delay in bringing the product to market can cause a disaster for the whole product. This work examines layer manufacturing and these related issues.