Types of Engineering Materials
Types of Engineering Materials
Metals
Metals are comparatively malleable, optically reflective, and electrically conductive. Most
metals and alloys are easily shaped by forming. Their disassociate electron bonding makes them
excellent conductors of electricity and heat. Almost all metals have an orderly arrangement of
atoms, resulting in a crystalline structure that may have multiple crystal phases bordering each
other.
Kinds of metals
o Ferrous Metal
o Non Ferrous Metal
Ferrous metals include mild steel, carbon steel, stainless steel, cast iron, and wrought iron. These
metals are primarily used for their tensile strength and durability, especially mild steel which helps
hold up the tallest skyscrapers and the longest bridges in the world. You can also find ferrous metals
in housing construction, industrial containers, large-scale piping, automobiles, rails for railroad and
transportation, most of tools and hardware you use around the house, and the knives you cook with
at home.
Examples: Carbon Steel, Stainless Steel
Non-ferrous metals include aluminum, brass, copper, nickel, tin, lead, and zinc, as well as
precious metals like gold and silver. While non-ferrous metals can provide strength, they are
primarily used where their differences from ferrous metals can provide an advantage
Non -metal
o Polymer (Organic Materials)
o Ceramic Materials
Polymers are long chain macromolecules built from repeated smaller chemical structures or
'-mers.' They are found widely in the natural world (e.g. proteins, rubber, cellulose) and,
increasingly the past century, in synthetic form (e.g. "plastics"). Polymers have been central
to many technological innovations that shape the modern world, such as film that enabled
the cinema, or the progression of vinyl LPs to polycarbonate CDs and DVDs that enabled
recorded music and video distribution.
There are two types of polymers:
synthetic and;
natural.
Synthetic polymers are derived from petroleum oil, and made by scientists and engineers.
Examples of synthetic polymers include nylon, polyethylene, polyester, Teflon, and epoxy.
Natural polymers occur in nature and can be extracted. They are often water-based. Examples
of naturally occurring polymers are silk, wool, DNA, cellulose and proteins.