Natural and synthetic rubber linings are used extensively in many industries for their corrosion and/or abrasion resistance. These industries include transportation, chemical processing, water treatment, power, mineral processing, and mining. This article provides information on soft natural rubber, semihard natural rubber, hard natural rubber, neoprene or polychloroprene, chlorobutyl, three-ply linings, nitrile, and ethylene propylene with a diene monomer. Emphasis is placed on advantages, disadvantages, and common uses of each material discussed.

This article discusses the properties, chemical structures, and applications of different types of elastomers grouped based on their resistance to aging (oxidative degradation), solvents, and temperature. These include butadiene rubber, natural rubber, isoprene rubber, chloroprene rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber, aerylonitrile-butadiene (nitrile) rubber, isobutylene-isoprene (butyl) rubber, ethylene-propylene (-diene) rubber, and silicone rubber. The article also provides an outline of the concerns related to the processing stages of rubbers or elastomers, including mixing or compounding, shaping, and vulcanizing or crosslinking.

Hard chromium plating is produced by electrodeposition from a solution containing chromic acid and a catalytic anion in proper proportion. This article presents the major uses of hard chromium plating, and focuses on the selection factors, plating solutions, solution and process control, equipment, surface preparation, and crack patterns and other characteristics of hard chromium plating. It offers recommendations for the design and use of plating racks, describes the problems encountered in hard chromium plating, and their corrective procedures. The article provides information on the removal of chromium plate from coated metals, recovery and disposal of wastes, and stopoff media for selective plating.

This article provides a brief discussion on the common types of overlayers that can be used on a metal surface to protect it from corrosion. These overlayers include phosphate, chromate, and chromate-free conversion coatings; hot dip galvanizing; cementitious linings; glass and porcelain enamels; electroplating; thermal spray coatings; and rubber linings.

This article describes the presses that are mechanically or hydraulically powered and used for producing sheet, strip, and plate from sheet metal. It also presents the JIC standards for presses, compares the presses based on power source, details the selection criteria and provides information on the various drive systems and the auxiliary equipment. It describes the selection of die materials and lubricants for sheet metal forming and provides information on the lubrication mechanisms and selection with a list of lubricant types for forming of specific sheet materials of ferrous or nonferrous metals. The article reviews the various types of forming processes such as blanking, piercing, fine-edge blanking, press bending, press forming, forming by multiple-slide machines, deep drawing, stretch forming, spinning, rubber-pad forming, three-roll forming, contour roll forming, drop hammer forming, explosive forming, electromagnetic forming, and superplastic forming.

Corrosion is the deterioration of a material by a reaction of that material with its environment. The realization that corrosion control can be profitable has been acknowledged repeatedly by industry, typically following costly business interruptions. This article describes the electrochemical nature of corrosion and provides the typical analysis of environmental- and corrosion-related failures. It presents common methods of testing of laboratory corrosion and discusses the processes involved in the prevention of environmental- and corrosion-related failures of metals and nonmetals.

Metallographic examination is one of the most important procedures used by metallurgists in failure analysis. Typically, the light microscope (LM) is used to assess the nature of the material microstructure and its influence on the failure mechanism. Microstructural examination can be performed with the scanning electron microscope (SEM) over the same magnification range as the LM, but examination with the latter is more efficient. This article describes the major operations in the preparation of metallographic specimens, namely sectioning, mounting, grinding, polishing, and etching. The influence of microstructures on the failure of a material is discussed and examples of such work are given to illustrate the value of light microscopy. In addition, information on heat-treatment-related failures, fabrication-/machining-related failures, and service failures is provided, with examples created using light microscopy.

The biocompatibility of a material relates to its immunological response, toxicity profile, and ability to integrate with surrounding tissue without undesirable local or systemic effects on a patient. This article underscores the transformation of the medical device design ecosystem engaged as an integral part of the device ecosystem. It discusses the various applications of biomaterials, including orthopedic, cardiovascular, ophthalmic, and dental applications. The article describes the four major categories of biomaterials, such as metals, polymers, glass and ceramics, and composites. A discussion on natural materials, nanomaterials, and stem cells is also provided. The article concludes with information on examples of biomaterials applications, including endovascular devices, knee implants, and neurostimulation.

Titanium alloys are often used in highly corrosive environments because they are better suited than most other materials. The excellent corrosion resistance is the result of naturally occurring surface oxide films that are stable, uniform, and adherent. This article offers explanations and insights on the most common forms of corrosion observed with titanium alloys, including general corrosion, crevice corrosion, anodic pitting, hydrogen damage, stress-corrosion cracking, galvanic corrosion, corrosion fatigue, and erosion-corrosion. It also provides practical strategies for expanding the useful application range for titanium and includes a comprehensive overview of available corrosion data.

This article provides an overview of curing techniques, adhesive chemistries, surface preparation, adhesive selection, and medical applications for adhesives. The curing techniques are classified into moisture, irradiation, heat, and anaerobic. The article highlights the common types of curable adhesives used for medical device assembly, including acrylics, cyanoacrylates, epoxies, urethanes, and silicones. Other forms of adhesives, such as hot melts, bioadhesives, and pressure-sensitive adhesives, are also discussed. Adhesives are used for medical device assembly, hard-tissue attachment in the fields of orthopedics and dentistry, and soft-tissue attachment such as wound closure. The typical characteristics and applications of biocompatible medical device adhesives are listed in a table. The article concludes with a section on selection of materials for medical adhesives.

Anodizing refers to conversion coating of the surface of aluminum and its alloys to porous aluminum oxide. This article provides the reasons for performing anodizing and discusses the three principal types of anodizing processes, namely, chromic acid process, sulfuric acid process, and hard anodic process. It describes the limitations imposed by variables, such as alloy composition, surface finish, prior processing, temper or heat treatment, and the use of inserts, on the anodizing processes. The article explains the causes and means adopted for correcting several specific problems in anodizing aluminum. It also discusses the process control techniques and equipment used for anodizing. The article reviews the sealing processes for anodic coatings and the method for coloring the coatings. It concludes with a discussion on the effects of anodic coatings on the surface and mechanical properties of aluminum and its alloys.

This article discusses the concepts of quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA), and clarifies the differences and similarities in the roles and responsibilities of QC and QA personnel. It describes the inspection procedures used to verify proper surface preparation and installation of the protective coating/lining system. Prior to beginning surface-preparation operations, many specifications will require a presurface-preparation inspection to verify the correction of fabrication defects and removal of surface contamination such as grease, oil, cutting compounds, lubricants, and chemical contaminants. When inspecting concrete prior to coating installation, three areas of concern exist: surface roughness, moisture content in concrete, and acidity/alkalinity of the surface. The article provides information on the industry standards for assessing surface cleanliness. It details postcoating application quality requirements, including measuring of dry-film thickness, assessing intercoat cleanliness, verifying minimum and maximum recoat intervals, performing holiday/pinhole detection, conducting cure/hardness testing, and assessing adhesion of the applied coating system.

This article is a comprehensive collection of engineering tables providing information on the mechanical properties of and the techniques for processing and characterizing polymeric materials, such as thermosets, thermoset-matrix unidirectional advanced composites, and unreinforced and carbon-and glass-reinforced engineering thermoplastics. Values are also provided for chemical resistance ratings for selected plastics and metals, and hardness of selected elastomers.

This article focuses on ceramics, glasses, glass-ceramics, and their derivatives, that is, inorganic-organic hybrids, in the forms of solid or porous bodies, oxide layers/coatings, and particles with sizes ranging from nanometers to micrometers, or even millimetres. These include inert crystalline ceramics, porous ceramics, calcium phosphate ceramics, and bioactive glasses. The article discusses the compositions of ceramics and carbon-base implant materials, and examines their differences in processing and structure. It describes the chemical and microstructural basis for their differences in physical properties, and relates properties and hard-tissue response to particular clinical applications. The article provides information on glass or glass-ceramic particles for cancer treatments.

This article reviews the friction and wear of various dental materials that have been studied by fundamental wear measurements, simulated service wear measurements, and clinical measurements. The materials include dental amalgam, composite restorative materials, pit and fissure sealants, dental cements, porcelain and plastic denture teeth, dental feldspathic porcelain and ceramics, endodontic instruments, periodontal Instruments, and orthodontic wires. The article describes the correlations of properties, such as hardness, fracture toughness, and wear. It discusses wear mechanism such as sliding adhesive wear, two-body abrasion, three-body abrasion, erosion, and fatigue.

Structural applications for advanced ceramics include mineral processing equipment, machine tools, wear components, heat exchangers, automotive products, aerospace components, and medical products. This article begins with an overview of the wear-resistant applications and the parameters affecting wear of ceramics, namely, hardness, thermal conductivity, fracture toughness, and corrosion resistance. The next part of the article addresses temperature-resistant applications of advanced ceramics. Specific applications of ceramic materials addressed include cutting tools, pump and valve components, rolling elements and bearings, paper and wire manufacturing, biomedical implants, heat exchangers, adiabatic diesel engines, advanced gas turbines, and aerospace applications.

This article reviews the various types of mechanical testing methods, including hardness testing; tension testing; compression testing; dynamic fracture testing; fracture toughness testing; fatigue life testing; fatigue crack growth testing; and creep, stress-rupture, and stress-relaxation testing. Shear testing, torsion testing, and formability testing are also discussed. The discussion of tension testing includes information about stress-strain curves and the properties described by them.

Elastomers belong to a group of materials known as polymers that acquire their properties and strength from their molecular weight, chain entanglements, and crystalline regions. This article focuses on the use of elastomers as seals and describes its performance capabilities from the point of a sealant. The important technical concepts that define the performance capabilities of the elastomeric part include polymer architecture (molecular building blocks), compounding (the ingredients within the polymer), and vulcanization of the elastomer shape. The article discusses the aggressiveness of the chemical environment, temperature, and minor constituents in the environment and in the material itself that affect the chemical resistance of the elastomer. It provides a discussion on performance evaluation methods, namely, immersion testing and application specific testing that are determined using ISO and ASTM standards. The article concludes with information on elastomer failure modes and failure analysis.

This article provides a detailed discussion on the functions, applications, types, and selection criteria of exterior and interior rail coatings. It includes a discussion on the corrosivity, inspection/maintenance, and qualification of applicators/inspectors/facilities.