Technical Materials

UNIT 4
What are materials?
§Materials are the matter or substance that objects are made from.

§We use a wide range of different materials daily like metal, plastic, wood, glass, ceramics,
synthetic fibres and composites (made from two or more materials combined together).

§For example:
§ Knives and forks can be made from metal.
§ Chairs can be made from wood.
§ Shoes can be made from leather.
 What materials are usually used to make the
following?
§ Chair

§ Door

§ Table

§ Pencil case

§ Window

§ Ruler

§ Compass

§ Pen

§ Toothbrush

§ Pages in a notebook

§ Pencil sharpener blade

Raw Materials
§Materials in unprocessed states or any material in its natural form.

§Raw materials are taken directly from nature that we process into other raw materials to
make products with.

§For example, we obtain plastic from crude oil, we obtain metal and glass from rocks, we
obtain flour from wheat, etc.
Natural Materials
§We prepare or refine raw materials to obtain natural materials.

§For example, wood is a natural material. However, we cannot make a cabinet out of wood
without preparing it first; in other words, we remove the bark, cut it into boards or planks,
sand it, etc.
Processed Materials
§When we process raw materials, they become processed materials or manufactured materials.

§For example, plastics we obtain from crude oil.

§We obtain products from both natural and processed materials.

§From the raw material (a sheep’s wool), we obtain a natural material (wool) which we then
process to make products with (wool jumpers).
Technical Materials
§A technical material is a processed raw material that is ready for making any type of
product or manufactured good.

Raw Process Technical Process Manufactured

Material Material Goods
https://youtu.be/7IP0Ch1Va44