A STEP TOWARDS INTEGRATED PRODUCT/PROCESS DEVELOPMENT OF MOLDED MULTI-MATERIAL STRUCTURES

Multi-material molding is emerging as a popularmethod for making multi-material structures. In
multi-material molding processes, fabrication and
assembly steps are performed concurrently inside the
mold. Therefore using existing knowledge on how to
design molded products often results in the selection
of wrong design alternatives and correcting these
mistakes unnecessarily delays the product
development process. To overcome this difficulty we
need to develop an integrated product/process
development methodology for designing molded
multi-material structures. This paper presents an
overview of different multi-material molding
technologies and the role of manufacturing
considerations in shape synthesis of molded multi-
material structures.