I.

Metals
Metal is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually shiny, malleable and ductile.[3] The meaning of the term "metal" differs for various communities (for example,astronomers call for convenience metals everything but hydrogen and helium,[4] see Metallicity). Many elements and compounds that are not normally classified as metals become metallic under high pressures. Metals account for about two thirds of all the elements and about 24% of the mass of the planet. Metals have useful properties including strength, ductility, high melting points, thermal and electrical conductivity, and toughness. From the periodic table, it can be seen that a large number of the elements are classified as being a metal. The key feature that distinguishes metals from non-metals is their bonding. Metallic materials have free electrons that are free to move easily from one atom to the next. The existence of these free electrons has a number of profound consequences for the properties of metallic materials. For example, metallic materials tend to be good electrical conductors because the free electrons can move around within the metal so freely. A. Origin of Metals Stone Age Towards the end of the Stone Age, man discovered metals. The first to catch his eye was gold, around 6000 BC. The brilliance and flexibility of gold led humans to look for more gold and gold-like metals. Soon, they found copper and silver, two other metals that can be found in their native state (i.e. as elements). Bronze Age For the next two thousand years, humans mined and used copper. Where pure copper was found, it was chipped into small pieces from a big mass. The smaller pieces of copper were then hammered and ground into shapes, in the same way that stone had been treated before. But the copper pieces turned out to be too brittle for use. Luckily, humans learned to anneal copper. Annealing means to heat to a high temperature and then cool slowly. Annealed copper could be shaped and stamped and things made from it were less brittle. Copper was sometimes found along with tin. When these two metals are mixed, the alloy, bronze, is much harder than both copper and tin. Bronze can be used to make stronger weapons and tools. Bronze knives could be made longer and developed into short swords or daggers. Other new weapons such as the mace and the lance also became possible. When the supplies of native metals ran out, humans had to extract metals from their ores (compounds) dug out of the ground. They had to learn two important skills, mining and smelting. By 4000 BC, people were cutting shafts into the hillside in the Balkans to excavate copper ore. These people feared and respected the spirits, they believed, in the dark interiors of the earth. So

they filled fine pots with produce from the outer world, and placed them in the mines. In this way they tried to compensate the spirits for the metals they took. These were the early days of mining. Ores had to be smelted to extract pure metal. Many of the ores were actually oxides. When they were heated with charcoal or coal, the carbon joined with the oxygen, and reduced the ore to metal. Another major discovery of this period was that of casting. In casting, molten metals are poured into a mold, and then allowed to solidify. The solid metal can then be extracted from the mold. While casting, a single mold can be used over and over again to produce identical copies of the same object. Molded parts can be combined into more complicated objects. The Bronze Age spanned from 3800 BC to 3000 BC. It was felt strongly in Britain and China and eventually spread to southern Europe. To bring together copper and tin to the same place, the Bronze Age saw a lot of trade in these metals. However, the Bronze Age had little effect on the mainland of Africa or the Columbian parts of South America. Most of the inventions of the Stone Age were improved upon in the Bronze Age. Weapons, such as swords, axes, hammers, scythes, bows, cross bows, catapult and trebuchets were also developed in the Bronze Age. New forms of art such as pottery and sculpture emerged. Bronze lamps, tea kettles, vases and vials are often found in ruins from that period. Bronze figurines of gladiators and Olympians have also been found. Iron Age Bronze was the hardest material known to man until iron was found around 1500 BC. At that time, nobody knew that iron would change almost every aspect of human life. This magical metal was first discovered by the residents of the Hittities, an area now known as modern Turkey. The iron ore found there is believed to have come from meteorites. One big problem in using iron was its high melting point. Primitive furnaces could not raise the temperature to the melting point of iron. People heated the iron ore as far as they could and then pounded it with hammers to squeeze out carbon and other impurities. Even though iron was more abundant than copper and tin, it was more difficult to work with. Widespread use of iron had to wait for the invention of the charcoal furnace in 1500 B.C. In its pure form, iron is actually less hard than bronze. When iron is heated in a charcoal furnace, the carbon in charcoal bonds with iron to form the alloy we call steel. Steel is one of the strongest materials on earth. By 1000 BC, man had learnt to make even stronger steel by adding in small amounts of other metals such as manganese, chromium, vanadium and tungsten. The art of steelmaking developed rapidly. As an example, an iron pillar in Delhi, India, dating back to 400 AD, still stands today free from rust and other damage.

Iron and steel made old weapons stronger. During the late Iron Age, people started smelting chain armor. New weapons such as long swords now became possible. Over time, steel swords and bows gave way to steel rifles and cannons. The use of artillery in war created the need for stronger armor. The ready supply of iron and steel helped prevent an economic crisis from the shortage of copper and tin to make bronze. Iron and steel replace bronze as the building blocks for human civilization. C. Manufacturing and Processing of Metals i. Casting Processes: Metal casting processes involve pouring molten metal into a mold cavity where, once solid, the metal takes on the shape of the cavity. ii. Deformation Processes: Deformation processes include metal forming and sheet metalworking processes. These processes use plastic deformation resulting from the use of a tool that applies stresses to the piece which exceed the yield stress of the metal. iii. Material Removal Processes: These processes remove extra material from the workpiece in order to achieve the desired shape. iv. Joining and Assembly Processes: In these operations multiple parts are connected either permanently or semi permanently to form a new entity. D. Finished Products

II. Ceramics
Ceramics are classified as inorganic and nonmetallic materials that are essential to our daily lifestyle. Ceramic and materials engineers are the people who design the processes in which these products can be made, create new types of ceramic products, and find different uses for ceramic products in everyday life. This category of materials includes things like tile, bricks, plates, glass, and toilets. Ceramics can be found in products like watches (quartz tuning forks-the time keeping devices in watches), snow skies (piezoelectric-ceramics that stress when a voltage is applied to them), automobiles (sparkplugs and ceramic engine parts found in racecars), and phone lines. They can also be found on space shuttles, appliances (enamel coatings), and airplanes (nose cones). Depending on their method of formation, ceramics can be dense or lightweight. Typically, they will demonstrate excellent strength and hardness properties; however, they are often brittle in nature. Ceramics can also be formed to serve as electrically conductive materials, objects allowing electricity to pass through their mass, or insulators, materials preventing the flow of electricity. Some ceramics, like superconductors, also display magnetic properties. Ceramics are generally made by taking mixtures of clay, earthen elements, powders, and water and shaping them into desired forms. Once the ceramic has been shaped, it is fired in a high temperature oven known as a kiln. Often, ceramics are covered in decorative, waterproof, paintlike substances known as glazes. A. Origin of Ceramics Archeologists have uncovered human-made ceramics that date back to at least 24,000 BC. These ceramics were found in Czechoslovakia and were in the form of animal and human figurines, slabs, and balls. These ceramics were made of animal fat and bone mixed with bone ash and a fine claylike material. After forming, the ceramics were fired at temperatures between 500800C in domed and horseshoe shaped kilns partially dug into the ground with loess walls. While it is not clear what these ceramics were used for, it is not thought to have been a utilitarian one. The first use of functional pottery vessels is thought to be in 9,000 BC. These vessels were most likely used to hold and store grain and other foods. It is thought that ancient glass manufacture is closely related to pottery making, which flourished in Upper Egypt about 8,000 BC. While firing pottery, the presence of calcium oxide (CaO) containing sand combined with soda and the overheating of the pottery kiln may have resulted in a colored glaze on the ceramic pot. Experts believe that it was not until 1,500 BC that glass was produced independently of ceramics and fashioned into separate items. Since these ancient times, the technology and applications of ceramics (including glass) has

steadily increased. We often take for granted the major role that ceramics have played in the progress of humankind. Below are just a few examples of how important ceramics are to society. C. Manufacturing and Processing of Ceramics Ceramic processing is used to produce commercial products that are very diverse in size, shape, detail, complexity, and material composition, structure, and cost. The purpose of ceramics processing to an applied science is the natural result of an increasing ability to refine, develop, and characterize ceramic materials. Ceramics are typically produced by the application of heat upon processed clays and other natural raw materials to form a rigid product. Ceramic products that use naturally occurring rocks and minerals as a starting material must undergo special processing in order to control purity, particle size, particle size distribution, and heterogeneity. These attributes play a big role in the final properties of the finished ceramic. Chemically prepared powders also are used as starting materials for some ceramic products. These synthetic materials can be controlled to produce powders with precise chemical compositions and particle size. The next step is to form the ceramic particles into a desired shape. This is accomplished by the addition of water and/or additives such as binders, followed by a shape forming process. Some of the most common forming methods for ceramics include extrusion, slip casting, pressing, tape casting and injection molding. After the particles are formed, these "green" ceramics undergo a heat-treatment (called firing or sintering) to produce a rigid, finished product. Some ceramic products such as electrical insulators, dinnerware and tile may then undergo a glazing process. Some ceramics for advanced applications may undergo a machining and/or polishing step in order meet specific engineering design criteria. D. Finished Products

III. Plastics
A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids that are moldable. Plastics are typically organic polymers of high molecular mass, but they often contain other substances. They are usually synthetic, most commonly derived frompetrochemicals, but many are partially natural. A. Origin of Plastics Early plastics were bio-derived materials such as egg and blood proteins, which are organic polymers. Treated cattle horns were used as windows for lanterns in the Middle Ages. Materials that mimicked the properties of horns were developed by treating milk-proteins (casein) with lye. In the 1800s the development of plastics accelerated with Charles Goodyear's discovery of vulcanization as a route to thermoset materials derived from natural rubber. Many storied materials were reported as industrial chemistry was developed in the 1800s. In the early 1900s, Bakelite, the first fully synthetic thermoset was reported by Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland. After the First World War, improvements in chemical technology led to an explosion in new forms of plastics. Among the earliest examples in the wave of new polymers were polystyrene (PS) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The development of plastics has come from the use of natural plastic materials (e.g., chewing gum, shellac) to the use of chemically modified natural materials (e.g., rubber,nitrocellulose, collagen, galalite) and finally to completely synthetic molecules (e.g., bakelite, epoxy, polyvinyl chloride). C. Manufacturing and Processing of Plastics i. Extrusion Some applications of extrusion are pipes, tubing, rods, fibers, coatings of other products (such as wire, cable and paper and various profile parts that have cross sectional shapes that dont have very simple geometries. ii. Injection Molding With injection molding, parts with very complex shapes including ribs, pins, bosses, etc. can be molded very easily. iii. Blow Molding Blow molding is utilized for producing hollow products such as plastic milk bottles. iv. Thermoforming Applications of thermoforming are spas, bathtubs, sinks, swimming pools, furniture and housewares, point-of-purchase displays, amusement park rides, automotive components, signs,

aircraft components, molds, lighting fixtures, snowmobiles and ATV's, recreational vehicle components, burial vaults, vault liners and casket components v. Rotational Molding This is a forming process in which melted plastic disperses over the inner surface of a rotating split mold, resulting in a hollow enclosed or open-ended part. vi. Casting Small objects of rather simple shape such as small radio cabinets, jewelry, and ornamental objects are commonly made by casting. vii. Foaming Typical products are furniture components, TV cabinets, Styrofoam cups and food containers, insulating blocks, and shaped packaging materials (such as for electronic appliances). viii. Compression Molding Typical, everyday products (primarily from the auto industry) manufactured via compression molding techniques include front and rear end automobile panels, hoods, roofs, scoops, fenders, spoilers, air deflectors, and lift gates. ix. Transfer Molding Typical parts made by transfer molding are electrical and electric components and rubber and silicone parts. x. Finishing and Assembly After the plastics are molded or cast to their desired shape, they require additional finishing before they are in their final use form. Common finishing operations are as follows; Runner system and flash removal Machining Non traditional machining (with lasers, hot-wire cutting, etc) Shaping (postmold forming) (used if the molded part is at an intermediate shape)

Mechanical joining and assembly (by using rivets, metal screws, or designing snap joints and internal hinges) Adhesive bonding (with adherents and adhesives)

Nonadhesive bonding (i.e. fusion bonding, ultrasonic welding, Radio frequency welding, friction welding, and induction welding) Coating and decorating (painting, printing, metalizing, etc.)

D. Finished Products of Plastics

IV. Composite Materials

(also called composition materials or shortened to composites) are materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties, that when combined, produce a material with characteristics different from the individual components. The individual components remain separate and distinct within the finished structure. Typical engineered composite materials include:

Composite building materials such as cements, concrete Reinforced plastics such as fiber-reinforced polymer Metal Composites Ceramic Composites (composite ceramic and metal matrices)

Composite materials are generally used for buildings, bridges and structures such as boat hulls, race car bodies, shower stalls, bathtubs, and storage tanks, imitation granite and cultured marble sinks and countertops. The most advanced examples perform routinely on spacecraft in demanding environments. A. Origin of Composite Materials The earliest man-made composite materials were straw and mud combined to form bricks for building construction. This ancient brick-making process was documented by Egyptian tomb paintings. Wattle and daub is one of the oldest man-made composite materials,

at over 6000 years old..[1] Concrete is also a composite material, and is used more than any other man-made material in the world.[2] As of 2006, about 7.5 billion cubic metres of concrete are made each yearmore than one cubic metre for every person on Earth.[2]

Woody plants, both true wood from trees and such plants as palms and bamboo, yield natural composites that were used prehistorically by mankind and are still used widely in construction and scaffolding. Plywood 3400 B.C. by the Ancient Mesopotamians; gluing wood at different angles gives better properties than natural wood Cartonnage layers of linen or papyrus soaked in plaster dates to the First Intermediate Period of Egypt c. 2181-2055 BC and was used for death masks Concrete was described by Vitruvius, writing around 25 BC in his Ten Books on Architecture, distinguished types of aggregate appropriate for the preparation of lime mortars. For structural mortars, he recommended pozzolana, which were volcanic sands from the sandlike beds of Puteoli brownish-yellow-gray in color near Naples and reddishbrown at Rome. Vitruvius specifies a ratio of 1 part lime to 3 parts pozzolana for cements used in buildings and a 1:2 ratio of lime to pulvis Puteolanus for underwater work, essentially the same ratio mixed today for concrete used at sea.[3] Natural cement-stones, after burning, produced cements used in concretes from post-Roman times into the 20th century, with some properties superior to manufactured Portland cement. Papier-mch, a composite of paper and glue, has been used for hundreds of years The first artificial fibre reinforced plastic was bakelite which dates to 1907, although natural polymers such as shellac predate it

C. Manufacturing and Processing of Composite Materials i. Pultrusion is a continuous molding process that combines fiber reinforcements and thermosetting resin. The pultrusion process is used in the fabrication of composite parts that have a constant cross-section profile. Typical examples include various rods and bar section, ladder side rails, tool handles, and electrical cable tray components and now bridge beams and decks. ii. Resin Transfer Molding it is commonly referred to is a Closed Mold Process in which reinforcement material is placed between two matching mold surfaces one being male and one being female. iii. Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM)

is different for many reasons. First, the fabrication of parts can be accomplished on a single open mold. Second, the process uses the injection of resin in combination with a vacuum and captured under a bag to thoroughly impregnate the fiber reinforcement. iv. Hand Layup - Open Molding Process Lamination technology is based on the joining or bonding of two or more laminae to form a laminate. The materials can vary in type and mechanical properties in addition to property specific orientation particularly pertaining to wood and composites. v. Compression Molding Compression molding is the most common method of molding thermosetting materials such as SMC (sheet molding compound) and BMC (bulk molding compound). This molding technique involves compressing materials containing a temperature-activated catalyst in a heated matched metal die using a vertical press. vi. Filament Winding The filament winding process is used in the fabrication of tubular composite parts. Typical examples are composite pipe, electrical conduit, and composite tanks. Fiberglass roving strands areimpregnated with a liquid thermosetting resin and wrapped onto a rotating mandrel in a specific pattern.