Introduction to Materials and Their Properties

Materials are one of the important elements of a manufacturing system. Since the list of materials is large and is constantly increasing with new arrivals, this makes the task of selection of material very difficult. It requires experience to choose a particular material. The selected material should meet the engineering requirements of the designers, the manufacturing requirements of the manufacturers and finally the economics factor of the customer. Engineering materials differ widely in physical properties, mechanical properties, machinability characteristics and manufacturing methods. All these points must be considered during the selection of a suitable material.