Advanced Material Processing

MEE 411

Dr. M. Tauqeer Anwar

Book: Materials Engineering, Science, Processing and Design by Michael Ashby, Hugh
Shercliff and David Cebon
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Organizing processes
A process is a method of shaping, joining or finishing a material.
• e.g. Casting, injection molding, fusion welding and electro-
polishing.
• The choice, for a given component, depends on the material
of which it is to be made, on its shape, dimensions and
precision, and on how many are to be made.
• The choice of material limits the choice of process.
• Polymers can be molded, other materials cannot.
• Ductile materials can be forged, rolled and drawn but those that are
brittle must be shaped in other ways.
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Organizing processes
• Shape, too, influences the choice of process.
• Slender shapes can be made easily by rolling or drawing
but not by casting.
• Hollow shapes cannot be made by forging, but they can
by casting or molding.
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Classifying Processes
Primary forming processes
• Casting, molding, deformation, powder methods, methods
for forming composites, special methods including rapid
prototyping.
Secondary processes
• Modify shapes or properties
• Add features to an already shaped body
• Heat treatment’, which enhances surface or bulk
properties.
• Joining and, finally, surface treatments
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Classifying Processes
• The Process universe has three families: shaping,
joining and surface treatment.
• Each process is characterized by a set of attributes:
• The materials it can handle, the shapes it can make,
their size, precision and an economic batch size (the
number of units that it can make most economically).
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Classifying Processes
• Shaping Process
• Casting, deformation, molding
• Rotation molding, blow molding, injection molding
• Joining Process
• Adhesives, welding and fasteners.
• Finishing Process
• Hardens, or protects, or decorates the surface in ways that
add value.
• Adds cost
• e.g. Coating
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Classifying Processes
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Classifying Processes
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Process–property interaction
• Processing can change properties.
• If you hammer a metal (‘forging’) it get harder; if you then heat it up it
gets softer again (‘annealing’).
• If polyethylene—the stuff of plastic bags—is drawn to a fiber, its
strength is increased by a factor of 5.
• Soft, stretchy rubber is made hard and brittle by vulcanizing.
• Heat-treating glass in a particular way can give it enough impact
resistance to withstand a projectile (‘bullet-proof glass’).
• Composites like carbon-fiber-reinforced epoxy have no useful
properties at all until processed—prior to processing they are just a
soup of resin and a sheaf of fibers.
• Electroplating to improve corrosion resistance, carburizing to improve
wear.
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Material property charts
• Data sheets for materials list their properties: they
give no perspective and present no comparisons.
• The way to achieve these is to plot material property
charts.
• The length of each bar shows the range of the
property for each material.
• They give an overview of the physical, mechanical
and functional properties of materials, presenting
the information about them in a compact way.
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Material property charts
• Types
• Bar charts and bubble charts.
• A bar chart is simply a plot of one property for all the materials
of the universe.
• Figure 2.8 shows an example: it is a bar chart for modulus, E.
The largest is more than 10 million times greater than the
smallest.
• Metals and ceramics have high moduli.
• Those of polymers are smaller, by a factor of about 50, than
those of metals; those of elastomers are some 500 times
smaller still.
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Material property charts
• Bubble Chart
• More information is packed into the picture if two
properties are plotted to give a bubble chart, as in Figure
2.9 showing modulus E and density ρ.
• All metals lie in the reddish zone near the top right.
• All polymers lie in the dark blue envelope in the center.
• Elastomers in the lighter blue envelope below.
• Ceramics in the yellow envelope at the top.
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Computer-aided information management for materials and processes
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Computer-aided information management for materials and processes
Introduction to Materials
Science and Engineering
Conclusion
• Processes can be grouped into families: those that create
shape, those that join and those that modify the surface
to enhance its properties or to protect or decorate it.
• The members of the families can be organized into a
hierarchical tree-like catalog.
• A record for a member stores information about it.
• This structure forms the basis of computer-based
selection systems of which the CES system is an example.