A Method for the Manufacturing of Functionally Graded Material Parts

Developments in additive manufacturing add possibilities to produce three-dimensional industrial parts. Nowadays, customized parts can be obtained in short period directly from digital data. One of major recent evolutions of additive manufacturing is the ability to produce functionally graded material (FGM) parts. These materials can be characterized by the variation in composition and structure gradually over the volume. The use of these materials is particularly attractive in fields such as aeronautical or biomedical where the multimaterial parts allow to modify locally mechanical, chemical, physical or biochemical properties. To move from the design to the fabrication of FGM parts, the necessary steps include representation of the part and determination of a manufacturing strategy to control the process.