Material selection

• Material selection is a operation which is performed to choose the best materials which
may have the potential to achieve well both in industrially and commercially.
• The competition in the market is large and this makes the selection of materials is an
important part of industrial designs.
• Failures arising from bad material selection are not surprising in many industries. In an
application that request a high tensile strength, a material with higher tensile strength
must be selected.
• It may be needed to consider the causes of ultraviolet light if the product is to be used
outdoors.
• The product life tends to be highly unforeseeable if a proper material selection is not
done.

The importance of the proper material selection as the role of an

engineer in the manufacturing company of recycling polymer products

Material Selection Ensures the Integrity at Design

• The integrity of a design can be confirmed only after a systematic material selection pro-
cedure.
• Materials will be valuated for tensile strength and modulus in the selection process.
• Flexural strength and modulus
• Impact strength
• Compressive strength, fatigue endurance
• Stress-relaxation properties depending on the application
• This will ensure that the design will have a higher chances of succeeding.
• It will also make sure that the design is technically fit to obtain desired properties.
• If the material selection is not in place, it will affect the design of the product making it
highly susceptible to failure.
• To ensure that the design is fit to deliver the performance of the product.

Structural Integrity for Lifetime of the Field

• It may be manipulated to a higher load than ever expected.

• It may be flubbed by a chemical. In these ageing and short term conditions, only a good
design with proper material selection may endure.
• Therefore the material engineer should have the capability to forecast the conditions
from clues he may already have about what a certain product may face in its actual
working conditions.

Wear of materials

• It must be ensured that the chosen materials have sufficient wear resistance.
• There are a lot of production techniques available to advance the wear resistance and
make the material is more suitable for the application.
• This is also very important factor to consider when choosing a material for a certain de-
sign.
• In the engineering design process this has to be considered with great care.

Corrosion

• The importance of material selection in engineering is clearly seen in corrosive environ-

ments.
• It is an important engineering design basis for designs open to the environment for a
longer period of time.
• Some materials are very likely to be corrupted in the service depending on the service
environment.
• Metals like aluminium are heavily prone to corrosion if it is not prepared to resist.

Manufacturing process

• It might be crucial to manufacture even though the material is well capable of using for
the design.
• The manufacture process might be very costly making it futile as a commercial product
if this selection criteria is neglected.
• These facts are generally varied with the type of manufacturing techniques.
• For an example, when producing a gear its dimensions must be very accurate. Or else
the application may not turn out the expected performance.
• It has to be machined in the production to make the dimensions more specific.
• Therefore the chosen material must able to be machined with a minimum cost.
• Otherwise there is no point of choosing that material for that certain gear.
Cost

• Cost is a critical fact to consider when choosing materials for a certain design.
• Plastics replaced most of the metal or other valuable materials in most of the designs.
• The cost factor can be ignored when performance is given the first concern.
• All the related cost factors must be considered to get a more reasonable value when
estimating costs.
• It may include the transportation and processing costs.
• Electrical conductivity is vital for an electrical application so it must be given the priority.
for instance.
• In mechanical engineering, designing for light weight is important for certain body parts
of vehicles where aluminIum is used instead of steel.
• The reason to exclude the most profitable material for a certain high temperature design
is an failure to meet the maximum operating temperature.