Catalan, Joanna Marie E.

BSME IV

Nature of Materials
Materials Engineering is an interdisciplinary field which deals with the discovery and design
of new materials. Though it is relatively new scientific field that involves studying materials paradigm
(synthesis, structure, properties, and performance), its intellectual origins reach back to the
emerging fields of chemistry, mineralogy, and engineering during the age of Enlightment.
Material science and engineering plays a vital role in this modern age of science and technology.
Various kinds of materials are used in industry, housing, agriculture, transportation clothing etc. to
meet the plant and individual requirements.

Historical Perspective
 Beginning of the Material Science:

People began to make tools from Stone – Start of the Stone Age about 2
million years ago.

Natural Materials: Stone, Wood, Clay, Skins etc.

 The Stone Age ended about 5000 years ago with introduction of Bronze in
the Far East.
Bronze is an alloy, a metal made up of more than one element,
Copper+ <25% of tin + other elements.
Bronze: can be hammered or cast into a variety of shapes, can be made
harder by alloying, corrode only slowly after a surface oxide film forms.

 The Iron Age began about 3000 years ago and continues today. Use of Iron
Steel, a stronger and cheaper material changed drastically daily life of a
common person.

 Age of Advanced Materials: Throughout the Iron Age many new types of
materials have been introduced (Ceramic, Semiconductors, Polymers,
Composites).
Ferrous Metals

Metals
Non-ferrous
Metals
Engineering
Materials
Synthetic Materials

Non-metallic
Materials

Natural Materials
TYPES OF ENGINEERING MATERIALS
 Metals
Are element substances which readily give up electrons to form metallic bonds and conduct
electricity.

Properties of Metals
 Malleable and ductile
 Lustrous (shiny)
 Hard.
 High density (are heavy for their size)
 High tensile strength (resist being stretched)
 High melting and boiling points.
 Good conductors of heat and electricity.

Classification of Metals
A. Ferrous

- These are metals and alloys containing a high portion of the Iron element.
- They are the strongest materials available and are used for applications where high strength is
required at relatively low cost and where weight is not of primary importance.
- As an example of ferrous metals such as: bridge building, the structure of large buildings, railway
lines, locomotives and rolling stock and the bodies and highly stressed engine parts of road
vehicles.
- The ferrous metals themselves can also be classified into “families”:

Carbon
Steel (low)

(low)
Carbon Steel
Steel (medium)

Carbon Steel (high)

Ferrous Materials Cast Iron

Wrought Iron

Grey cast iron

Wrought Iron
White cast iron

Malleable cast iron

High-duty cast iron

Alloy cast iron

B. Non-Ferrous
The pure metals are rarely used as structural materials as they lack mechanical strength.
 They are used where their special properties such as corrosion resistance, electrical
conductivity and thermal conductivity are required. Copper and aluminum are used as
electrical conductors and, together with sheet zinc and sheet lead, are use as roofing
materials.
 They are mainly used with other metals to improve their strength

Classification of Non-ferrous materials:

 Metals
- Aluminum
- Cadmium
- Chromium
- Cobalt
- Copper
- Gold
- Lead
- Magnesium
- Manganese
- Molybdenum
- Nickel
- Platinum
- Silver
- Tin
- Titanium
- Tungsten
- Vanadium
- Zinc
 Alloys
- Aluminum Bronze (copper and aluminum)
- Cupro–Nickel (copper and nickel)
- Magnesium Alloys
- Zinc-Based ‘die-casting’ Alloy
 Brass (copper and zinc)
 Aluminum alloys
 Heat treatable (wrought)
 Heat treatable (cast)
 Non-heat treatable (wrought)
 Non-heat treatable (cast)
  Tin-Lead Alloys
 Soft solders
 Bearing Metals
 Tin Bronze (copper and thin)
 Phosphor bronze
 Gun Metal

Non-metallic materials:
 Elements that doesn’t have the characteristics of metal including the ability to
conduct heat or electricity, luster or flexibility.

A. Synthetic Materials
These are non-metallic materials that do not exist in nature, although they are manufactured
from natural substances such as oil and clay.
Synthetic Adhesives
- Are also being used for the joining of metallic components even in highly stressed
applications.
- They combine good corrosion resistance with ease of manufacture by molding to
shape and relatively low cost.
- Synthetic adhesives are also being used for the joining of metallic components
even in highly stressed applications.

a) Plastics - any of the various non-metallic compounds, synthetically produced, usually

from organic compounds by polymerization, which can be molded into various forms and
hardened or formed for different commercial use.
b) Ceramics – ceramics are made by heating together materials such as silica, chalk and
clays.
Ex. Glass, porcelain, and cemented carbide
c) Composites – this are materials made up from, or composed of, a combination of
different materials to take overall advantages of their different properties. In man-made
composites, the advantages of deliberately combining materials in order to obtain
improved or modified properties was understood by ancient civilizations.
Ex. Concrete, carbon fiber

B. Natural Materials

 Wood: This is naturally occurring fibrous composite material used for the manufacture
of casting patterns.
 Rubber: This is used for hydraulic and compressed air hoses and oil seals. Naturally
occurring latex is too soft for most engineering uses but it is used widely for vehicle tires
when it is compounded with carbon black.

 Glass: This is a hardwearing, abrasion-resistant material with excellent weathering

properties. It is used for electrical insulators, laboratory equipment, Optical components
in measuring instruments and, in the form of fibers, is used to reinforce plastics. It is
made by melting together the naturally occurring materials: silica (sand), limestone
(calcium carbonate) and soda (sodium carbonate).
 Emery: This is a widely used abrasive and is a naturally occurring aluminum oxide.
Nowadays it is produced synthetically to maintain uniform quality and performance.
 Ceramic: These are produced by baking naturally occurring clays at high temperatures
after molding to shape. They are used for high – voltage insulators and high –
temperature – resistant cutting tool tips.
 Diamonds: These can be used for cutting tools for operation at high speeds for metal
finishing where surface finish is greater importance. For example, internal combustion
engine pistons and bearings. They are also used for dressing grinding wheels.
 Oils: Used as bearing lubricants, cutting fluids and fuels.
 Silicon: This is used as an alloying element and also for the manufacture of
semiconductor devices.
Properties of Engineering Materials
 Chemical Properties – The characteristics of a material that relate to its behavior
in chemical reaction
 Physical Properties – The characteristics that are used to describe a substance in
absence of external forces.
 Mechanical Properties – The properties that describe the behavior of materials
under the application of force.
Factors affecting materials properties:

1. Heat treatment
This is the controlled heating and cooling of metals to change their properties to
improve their performance or to facilitate processing.
An example of heat treatment is the hardening of a piece of high carbon steel rod. If it
is heated to dull red heat and plunged into cold water to cool it rapidly (quenching), it
will become hard and brittle. If it is again heated to dull red heat but allowed to cold
very slowly it will become softer and less brittle (more tough). In this condition it is said
to be annealed.
After the heat treatment happened on the material it will be in its best condition for
flow forming, during flow forming (working) the grains will be distorted and this will
result in most metals becoming work hardened if flow formed at room temperature. To
remove any locked in stresses resulting from the forming operations and to prepare the
material for machining, the material has to be normalized.
 2. Processing
Hot –and cold working process will be referred to understand what is meant by terms
hot and cold working as applied to metals. Metal is hot worked or cold worked
depending upon the temperature at which it is flow formed to shape.
These temperatures are not easy to define. For instance, lead hot works at room
temperature and can be beaten into complex shapes without cracking, but steel does
not hot work until it is red hot. When metal are examined under the microscope it can
be seen that they consist of very small grains.
When most metals are bent or worked at room temperature (cold worked) these grains
become distorted and the metal becomes hard and brittle.
When metals are hot worked the crystals are also distorted.
However, they reform instantly into normal crystals because the process temperature is
above the temperature of recrystallization for the metal being used and work hardening
does not occur.
This cold working is the flow forming of metals below the temperature the
recrystallization, whilst hot working is the flow forming of metals above the
temperature of recrystallization.

3. Environmental reactions
The properties of materials can also be effected by reaction with environment in
which they are used. For example:

 Resting of steel
Unless steel structures are regularly maintained by rest neutralization and painting
process, resting will occur. The rest will eat into the steel, reduce its thickness and,
therefore, its strength. In extreme cases an entire structure made from steel may be
eaten away.
 Dezincification of brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc and when brass is exposed to a marine environment
for a long time, the salt in the sea water pray react with the zinc content of the brass so
as remove it and leave it behind on spongy, porous mass of copper. This obviously
weakness the material which fails under normal working conditions.

 Degradation of plastic
Many plastic degrade and become weak and brittle when exposed to the ultraviolet
content of sunlight. Special dyestuffs have to be incorporated into the plastic to filter
out these harmful rays.