Tailoring material properties in layered manufacturing

This article presents a novel approach for tailoring material properties in parts fabricated using layered manufacturing (LM). Solid model of the part is subdivided into various subparts based on stress analysis. All subdivided solid models are fabricated together by using selective laser sintering (SLS) process with parameters 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. Various issues in implementation have been discussed and a case study of crane hook part is presented to demonstrate implementation procedure. Fabricated crane hook parts have been validated for dimensional accuracy using Reverse Engineering.