Materials Selection

Abstract

One of the functions of an engineer and designer is to select suitable materials to satisfy specific design, production, operational and maintenance requirements and, in doing this, produce a component or assembly at an acceptable cost. There are many thousands of different materials available to the engineer and the range of mechanical and physical properties possible is extremely wide. However, the proper selection of a material to fit a design requirement is not an exercise which can be carried out in isolation. Selection of a material must involve consideration of design and manufacturing factors. There is a complex inter-dependence between the three elements of design, material and manufacture.