This article describes the physical properties of powder metallurgy (PM) stainless steels. These include thermal diffusivity, conductivity, thermal expansion coefficient, Poisson's ratio, and elastic modulus. The article contains a table that lists the characteristics of various grades of PM stainless steels. It discusses the applications of various PM stainless steels such as rearview mirror brackets, anti-lock brake system sensor rings, and automotive exhaust flanges and sensor bosses.

This article provides information on the applications of metal-matrix composites in engine components, brake system, and driveshaft. The components include pistons, cylinder liners, valves, pushrods, and connecting rods.

This article focuses on friction and wear of automotive and aircraft brakes. It provides a comparison of friction and wear behaviors, frictional characteristics, and frictional performance of the friction materials. The article describes the components of brake friction materials and the classifications of brake lining materials. It discusses the effect of formulation compositions and manufacturing processes and the effect of braking operation conditions. The article provides information on aircraft brake linings, which operate under a wide range of kinetic energy conditions. The morphology effect of graphite on automotive brake drum and disk is explained. The article also describes the characteristics of specific wear rates for both normal and local cast iron in automotive brake drums and disk rotors. It provides information on noises, vibrations, and harshness caused by brake pads. The article concludes with information on physical and chemical testing of brakes and toxicity of brake formulation and regulations.

Press brakes are a common and versatile type of equipment for bending metal by delivering an accurate vertical force in a confined longitudinal area. This article begins with a discussion on the design, widening methods, and types of materials used in press brakes. It focuses on the two basic drive systems used in operating press brakes, namely, mechanical and hydraulic drive systems. The article also provides an outline on the tooling associated with press-brakes.

Metal casting is the manufacturing method in which a metal or an alloy is melted, poured into a mold, and allowed to solidify. Typical uses of castings include municipal hardware, water distribution systems (pipes, pumps, and valves), automotive components (engine blocks, brakes, steering and suspension components, etc.), prosthetics, and gas turbine engine hardware. This introduction explains the steps involved in making a casting using a simplified flow diagram, and discusses the ferrous and nonferrous alloys used for metal casting.

Friction welding (FRW) can be divided into two major process variations: direct-drive or continuous-drive FRW and inertia-drive FRW. This article describes direct-drive FRW variables such as rotational speed, duration of rotation, and axial force and inertia-drive FRW variables such as flywheel mass, rotational speed, and axial force. It lists the advantages and limitations of FRW and provides a brief description on categories of applications of FRW such as batch and jobbing work and mass production. A table of process parameters of direct-drive FRW systems relative to inertia-drive FRW systems is also provided.

Triaxial Hopkinson techniques can be used to simultaneously subject a sample to axial and lateral compressions. The lateral compression may be applied through a pneumatic pressure vessel or dynamically using a special Hopkinson technique. This article reviews these two techniques in detail. It illustrates a 75-mm Hopkinson system, particularly designed to test large samples of concrete, rock, polymeric composites, and other materials with relatively coarse microstructures. The article also provides information on the pneumatic pressure vessel for a 75-mm Hopkinson bar test system and the dynamic triaxial load cell on a 19-mm Hopkinson bar.

Friction materials are the components of a mechanism that converts mechanical energy into heat upon sliding contact. This article discusses the selection criteria, manufacturing process, and applications of friction powder metallurgy materials. It provides information on the manufacturing process of powder metallurgy friction materials through a process of mixing/blending, compacting, and sintering. The final machining that they undergo, to ensure that they meet dimensional specifications, is also discussed.

This article provides assistance to a failure analyst in broadening the initial scope of the investigation of a physical engineering failure in order to identify the root cause of a problem. The engineering design process, including task clarification, conceptual design, embodiment design, and detail design, is reviewed. The article discusses the design process at the personal and project levels but takes into consideration the effects of some higher level influences and interfaces often found to contribute to engineering failures.

The central approach of human factors engineering is the systemic application of relevant information about human characteristics and behavior to the design of human-made objects, facilities, and environments that people use. This article focuses on the elements that are considered for an acceptable level of human performance. These include the state or condition of the human being; the activity, including equipment and required tools; and the context in which the activity is performed.

The intent of this article is to assist the failure analyst in understanding the underlying engineering design process embodied in a failed component or system. It begins with a description of the mode of failure. This is followed by a section providing information on the root cause of failure. Next, the article discusses the steps involved in the engineering design process and explains the importance of considering the engineering design process. Information on failure modes and effects analysis is also provided. The article ends with a discussion on the consequence of management actions on failures.

Risk and hazard analysis can be effectively used during design reviews to provide valuable feedback to the design to avoid failures. This article discusses the types of risks, namely, real risk, statistical risk, predicted risk, and perceived risk. It describes the principle and technical methods of risk/hazard analysis practiced in the industry to identify possible hazards and the resources necessary to avoid or reduce risks. These methods include the failure mode and effect analysis, fault tree analysis, event tree analysis, risk/benefit analysis, safety analysis, and probabilistic estimates.

The recreation industry covers a huge number of sports, games, and activities that take place in environments as diverse as the activities themselves. This article addresses the corrosive attack on recreational equipment, such as recreational boats, firearms, bicycles, playground equipment, and climbing gear. It discusses the procedures for base materials selection, surface treatments and coatings, and good practice of maintenance to mitigate corrosion while addressing other functional issues for a given piece of equipment.

This article considers the main characteristics of wear mechanisms and how they can be identified. Some identification examples are reported, with the warning that this task can be difficult because of the presence of disturbing factors such as contaminants or possible additional damage of the worn products after the tribological process. Then, the article describes some examples of wear processes, considering possible transitions and/or interactions of the mechanism of fretting wear, rolling-sliding wear, abrasive wear, and solid-particle erosion wear. The role of tribological parameters on the material response is presented using the wear map concept, which is very useful and informative in several respects. The article concludes with guidelines for the selection of suitable surface treatments to avoid wear failures.