The reality of functionally graded material products

摘要

Rapid Manufacturing utilizes the application of different materials in parts by stacking a sequence of layers. Based on the requirements of the part, mixtures of materials, so-called Functionally Graded Materials, can be used to compose the product functionality. This process depends completely on the availability of CAD information of the part geometry. Unfortunately, commercially available CAD-systems do not allow the design of graded material structures. TNO developed a computer tool which enables the user to specify Functionally Graded Materials. The system is based on a new approach to define the material composition at any point in the solid.