Life-cycle engineering is a part-, system-, or process-related tool for the investigation of environmental parameters based on technical and economic measures. This article focuses on life-cycle engineering as a method for evaluating impacts. It describes the four steps of life-cycle analysis, namely, goal definition and scoping, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation, and improvement analysis. The article discusses the applications of life-cycle analysis results and presents a case history of life-cycle analysis of an automobile fender.

Product design greatly influences the recycling and reuse of manufacturing materials. This article presents a design for recycling strategy based on ease of disassembly, minimizing process scrap, using readily recyclable materials, and labelling or otherwise identifying parts. It also discusses the concept of life-cycle analysis (LCA), a quantitative accounting of the environmental and economic costs of using a given material and the energy required to make, distribute, operate, and eventually dispose of the host product and its constituent materials. An important but often overlooked step in the LCA process is to identify potential improvement pathways.

This article focuses on the technologies and applications of additive manufacturing (AM) in the oil and gas industry. It then presents the challenges of AM and the oil and gas industry. The article provides a detailed description of the critical steps in the AM process chain, including part selection, design optimization, and process planning, control, and inspection. Qualification and certification standardization is discussed, as is a commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of the manufacturing sector through AM. It ends with the future outlook of AM in the oil and gas industry.

This article provides an overview of cost analysis in materials selection. It discusses the several categories of alternatives for cost analysis. These include rules of thumb, accounting methods, and analytical methods. The article describes the methods for evaluating materials alternatives on the basis of both direct economic costs and indirect social costs. It considers the life cycle costs of alternative body-in-white designs and life cycle analysis. The various elements of cost are introduced with a case study concerned with the manufacture, use, and disposal of the automobile body-in-white.

This article discusses Allenby's two streams for environmental aspects of design: generic and specific concerns. Generic concerns include guidelines that provide the structure in which specific techniques can be developed and used. Specific methods are environmentally responsible for design and specific information that engineers can use. These methods include life cycle assessment, environmental impact assessment, quality function deployment, design for “X”, failure modes and effects analysis, and design for disassembly.

This article provides the framework for the investigation of bridge failures. It explains the types of bridge loading and presents the regulatory provisions for bridges. Some bridge failures in the U.S. that resulted in significant changes in bridge manufacturing, design, regulation, and/or maintenance are also discussed. In addition, the article provides information on traffic damage and fatigue cracking that result in bridge failures. The need for steels with better fracture toughness in bridge design is also discussed.

This article presents the basic principle, characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) methods in additive manufacturing. It focuses on the two types of RUS methods: the swept-sine method and the impulse excitation method. Representative significant results for additively manufactured complex parts obtained with the different RUS systems are also shown. The article also presents the basic principle and examples of nonlinear RUS methods.

This article reviews business cases for additive manufacturing (AM) and offers suggestions on monetizing the flexibility created by AM through a deep understanding of the most applicable cost drivers. It also reviews the common adoption drivers for AM and provides suggestions on how to take advantage of them. The AM maturity model breaks down potential additively manufactured products into five levels: preproduction, production influence, substitution, functional designs, and multifunctional. The business value of these levels is further described and evaluated with respect to the triple constraint of project management. The article then focuses on success factors for implementing AM.

This article provides a summary of the concepts discussed in the Section “Corrosion in Specific Industries” in the ASM Handbook, Volume 13C:Corrosion: Environments and Industries. This Section applies the fundamental understanding of corrosion and knowledge of materials of construction to practical applications. The industries addressed are nuclear power, fossil and alternative fuel, land transportation, air transportation, microelectronics, chemical processing, pulp and paper, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and medical technology, petroleum and petrochemical, building, and mining and metal processing.

This article introduces the concept of condition monitoring (CM) and summarizes various techniques used for CM across the industrial sectors. The techniques include visual inspection, performance monitoring, vibration condition monitoring, vibration condition monitoring, lubricant oil analysis, acoustic emission testing, temperature monitoring, motor current signature analysis, and ultrasound emission. The article describes the evolution of condition-based maintenance in CM. It also describes the basics of integrated vehicle health management, a capability that enables a number of maintenance philosophies. The article concludes with a discussion on various condition monitoring in industrial sectors, including condition-monitoring techniques in nuclear power plants, road condition monitoring, and condition monitoring in wind turbines.

A wide range of flow-formed open- and close-ended shapes are currently available in a variety of difficult-to-form materials, including titanium alloys and nickel-base super alloys. This article describes the two basic methods of flow forming that are characterized by the position of the rolls during the forming process. The flow forming methods include staggered-roll flow forming process and in-line flow-forming process. Typical mechanical properties of flow-formed materials in various conditions are summarized in a table. Proper process controls and subsequent product qualification tests are critical to assure optimal performance of the flow-formed tubular component. The article discusses the most commonly required process control parameters and the effects of forming speed and temperature in the flow forming process.

This article introduces the design and manufacturing implications of additive manufacturing (AM) on part characteristics as well as on design opportunities and on manufacturing practices, supply chains, and even business models. In addition, it describes how they relate to the fundamental nature of AM processes and discusses the characteristics and purposes of AM processes and the parts they fabricate.

This article discusses the importance of the care and handling of fracture specimens and what to look for during the preliminary field or laboratory observation and collection, the preservation of specimens, and the cleaning and preparation of fracture specimens for additional analyses. The preservation of nonmetallic specimens, medical devices, oversized components, light alloys, nondestructively tested components, and materials that are part of legal proceedings is addressed.

This article describes the relationship between failure analysis and materials selection and a basic procedure for performing a failure analysis. It discusses the methods for analyzing failures to improve materials selection and presents examples that illustrate the use of failure analysis in materials selection and materials development/refinement.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is the process of joining materials to make parts from three-dimensional (3D) model data, usually layer upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing and formative manufacturing methodologies. This article discusses various defects in AM components, such as porosity, inclusions, cracking, and residual stress, that can be avoided by using vendor recommended process parameters and approved materials. It describes the development of process-structure-property-performance modeling. The article explains the practical considerations in nondestructive evaluation for additively manufactured metallic parts. It also examines nondestructive testing (NDT) inspection and characterization methods for each of the manufacturing stages in their natural order. The article provides information on various inspection techniques for completed AM manufactured parts. The various electromagnetic and eddy current techniques that can be used to detect changes to nearsurface geometric anomalies or other defects are also discussed. These include ultrasonic techniques, radiographic techniques, and neutron imaging.

This article first describes a typical additive manufacturing (AM) process chain, which involves the transaction of digital information to manufacture physical products. The digitized nature of AM exposes the technology to increased vulnerabilities, posing a hurdle to its mass adoption. The article presents motivation for using blockchain, which is a decentralized, immutable ledger that is shared on a peer-to-peer network. The article presents the advantages of blockchain integration to AM supply chains. These involve aspects of data security, supply chain and logistics, finance, value creation, and scope expansion. The article also presents the opportunities and challenges of blockchain technology.

Machine vision, also referred to as computer vision or intelligent vision, is a means of simulating the image recognition and analysis capabilities of the human eye and brain system with digital techniques. The machine vision functionality is extremely useful in inspection, supervision, and quality control applications. This article presents a variety of machine vision functions for different purposes and provides a comparison of machine and human vision capabilities in a table. It discusses the processes of a machine vision system: image acquisition, image preprocessing, image analysis, and image interpretation. The article provides information on the uses of machine vision systems in three categories of manufacturing applications: visual inspection, identification of parts, and guidance and control applications.

This article describes common design criteria and identifies the design considerations that have a significant effect on the end product. The design criteria include cost, size, mechanical properties, repeatability and precision of parts, damage tolerance and durability, and environmental constraints.

This article reviews the most common reasons for failures and the purpose of a failure investigation. It discusses the nine steps for the organization of a good failure investigation. The three basic tools that are helpful in any failure investigation, namely, a fault tree, a failure mode assessment chart, and a technical plan for resolution chart, are reviewed. The article briefly describes failure investigation pitfalls and concludes with information on the other common tools used for failure investigation and root cause determination.

Failure analysis is a process that is performed to determine the causes or factors that have led to an undesired loss of functionality. This article describes some of the factors and conditions that might be considered when approaching a failure analysis problem. It focuses on the key principles, objectives, practices, and procedures of failure analysis. The article provides guidelines on the preparation of a protocol for a failure analysis. It also demonstrates the proper approaches to failure analysis.