Manufacture of Functionally Gradient Materials using Weld-Deposition

When the inherent inhomogeneity of Additive Manufacturing techniques is carefully exploited, the anisotropy transforms into the desired distribution of the properties paving the way for manufacture of Functionally Gradient Materials. The present work focuses on using weld-deposition based Additive Manufacturing techniques to realize the same. Mechanical properties like hardness and tensile strength can be controlled by a smaller degree through control of process parameters like current, layer thickness etc. A wider control of material properties can be obtained with the help of tandem weld-deposition setup like twin-wire. In tandem twin-wire weld-deposition, two filler wires (electrodes) are guided separately and it is possible to control each filler wire separately. The investigations done on these two approaches are presented in paper.