Tailoring Material Properties in Layered Manufacturing

This paper discusses an approach for tailoring material properties in parts fabricated using Layered Manufacturing (LM). Solid model of the part is subdivided into various sub regions based on stress analysis. All subdivided regions are fabricated together by using Rapid Prototyping with process parameter values assigned as per their stress values. As mechanical properties are varying with process parameters and hence fabricated part will have customized mechanical properties for different regions. Commercial software MIMICS® is used to convert Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computer Tomography (CT) scan data, which is similar to data required in LM process. In the present work, it was observed that, this software can be best utilized for generating solid model from JPG images obtained through FEM analysis, for customizing mechanical properties. Various issues in implementing this, have been discussed and a case study of crane hook part is presented to demonstrate implementation procedure.