The eBook contains six papers, all of which explore the impact of additive manufacturing. Although additive manufacturing technologies are around for about three decades, it is important to notice that the study of additive manufacturing is an emerging scientific field. The emerging nature of this field is reflected in the approaches that the papers in this issue adopt. These approaches are more explorative and practical rather than theoretical. Some papers provide practical advice, such as advice about the type of additive manufacturing technology that should be adopted in particular use contexts (see Meisel et al., 2016) or advice about the type of machine spare parts that can be produced cost-efficiently using additive manufacturing (see Knofius et al., 2016). The other papers explore the consequences of the implementation of additive manufacturing in various industries using a case-study methodology or adopting a practical experimental approach (see Steenhuis and Pretorius (2016) who report their own experiences of using a 3d-printer).