1. Introduction

Near net shape processing or net shape processing has been and continues to be a pursuit of the Materials Science and engineering community. Net shape processing is a type of manufacturing that produces a product that does not require any further treatment. Near net shape processing is similar except that minor treatment of the product is considered necessary. There are many motivations for developing such routes. Processing metallic and metallic based composite products are capital intensive operations; thus any process that generates a product closer to its final form using less processing steps will require less capital equipment and result in reduced capital investments. Concomitant with the reduction in process steps is the requirement that superior product performance and properties be achieved while reducing the waste generated in processing the part. It is desired to process complex shaped parts with significant throughput and the ability to apply automation in processing. This increases the reliability of products while achieving high volume production. An additional advantage of these processing routes is that they are considered to be green processes.