Ebook: Handbook of Materials for Product Design

Third Edition. — McGraw-Hill, Inc. 2001. — 1409 p.Since most product designers are mechanical or electrical engineers, and since materials are chemical, these significantly different technical languages lead to a critical knowledge and understanding gap. Successful product design requires, first, bridging this technical language barrier gap and, second, providing the product designer with the information, data, and guidelines necessary to select the optimum material for a given product design. It is the purpose of this Handbook of Materials for Product Design to provide both an understanding of the many classes of materials that the product designer has available to him, and the information, data, and guidelines that will lead the product designer to the best choice of materials for his specific product. Toward this end, this book has been prepared as a thorough sourcebook of practical data for all ranges of interests. It contains an extensive array of materials properties and performance data, presented as a function of the most important product variables. In addition, it contains very useful reference lists at the end of each chapter and a thorough, easy-to-use index.
The chapter organization of this Handbook of Materials for Product Design is well suited for reader convenience. The initial three chapters deal with metal materials—first, the important ferrous metals, then second, the broadly used aluminum metals and alloys, and third, metals other than those covered in the first two chapters. The second set of three chapters covers polymeric materials first, the all-important group of plastic materials, then, second, that specially reinforced group of plastics known as composites, and third, that important group of rubbery polymeric materials known as elastomers.
Next come two chapters on the two major groups of nonmetallic, inorganic materials, namely, ceramics and glasses. These are followed by two chapters on finishes, first organic finishes and paints, and second, electrodeposited or electroplated metallic finishes. Following all of the above chapters on specific groups of materials are two chapters on the always critical and often difficult areas of bonding materials. First is a chapter on the joining of plastics, with explanations of the various processes and their trade-offs. Next comes a very practical and useful chapter on the many adhesive bonding materials, techniques, and processes, along with their trade-offs.
The final two chapters in the book are both increasingly important and critical in modern product design applications. First is a chapter on materials testing and reliability, and second is a chapter on material recycling. These are especially important, since they affect not only optimum product design but also environmental and even legal issues.