This article provides a brief historical perspective, a classification of metallurgical processes, basic model development efforts, and an overview of the potential future directions for the modeling of metals processing. It describes the classification of material behavior models, which can be grouped broadly into three classes: statistical, phenomenological, and mechanistic models. The article also presents an overview of the potential directions for the modeling of metals processing.

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.

This article describes how design can unfavorably affect product quality. It provides information on the total quality management philosophy, emphasizing the principles of quality management. The article discusses various methods for evaluating a product design for quality. It presents design guidelines that are intended to provide products with a potential for higher levels of quality.

Value analysis (VA) is a team problem-solving process to improve the value of a product from the viewpoint of a user. This article presents a comparison between VA and total quality management in materials selection and design. It discusses the key attributes, concepts, and activities of the VA. The application of value engineering in U.S. government contracts and the construction industry is reviewed. The article describes the eight phases of the VA process: preparation, information, analysis, creation, synthesis, development, presentation and report, and implementation and follow-up. It presents case studies that illustrate the materials-related aspects of the VA process.

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.

Construction-scale additive manufacturing, also known as construction three-dimensional printing (C3DP), has received significant attention as a technology that could transform the construction industry by offering a highly automated construction process for various applications. This article presents an overview of the current developments in C3DP as well as future prospects and discusses the technical and regulatory barriers to its widespread adoption by the construction industry. It also presents a detailed discussion on construction-scale additive manufacturing technologies.

This article provides a discussion on ten rules for the effective production of reliable castings. These rules include good-quality melt, liquid front damage, liquid front stop, bubble damage, core blows, shrinkage damage, convection damage, segregation, residual stress, and location points.

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 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.

This article describes ironmaking and steelmaking practices (melt or liquid processing, including hot metal desulfurization) and discusses the evolution of these processes and their effects on steel properties. The physical chemistry of steelmaking may appear deceptively simple for integrated steel mill operations where ore from the ground is converted into steel. The various refining steps that occur in steelmaking are reviewed. The article also describes solid processing of steel, with emphasis on hot and cold rolling, thermomechanical processing, and annealing of flat steel products.

Product design for manufacture and assembly can be the key to high productivity in all manufacturing industries. This article discusses the use of design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA) software in the evaluation of proposed designs. It summarizes the steps taken when using DFMA software during design. The article describes the use of design for analysis tool in reducing the number of separate parts, estimating assembly time, and determining design efficiency. It reviews assembly analysis methods such as the assemblability evaluation method, the assembly-oriented product design method, the Lucas method, and the design-for-assembly cost effectiveness method. The article explains the design for manufacture in terms of cost estimation and principal cost drivers. It provides information on the applications of DFMA and roadblocks in the implementation of DFMA. The article concludes with a discussion on the design for automatic assembly.

Casting is one of the most economical and efficient methods for producing metal parts. In terms of scale, it is well suited for everything from low-volume, prototype production runs to filling global orders for millions of parts. Casting also affords great flexibility in terms of design, readily accommodating a wide range of shapes, dimensional requirements, and configuration complexities. This article traces the history of metal casting from its beginnings to the current state, creating a timeline marked by discoveries, advancements, and influential events. It also lists some of the major markets where castings are used.

Probability of detection (POD) assesses the performance of a non-destructive evaluation (NDE)-based inspection, which is a method used to determine the capability of an inspection as a function of defect type and defect size. This article provides an overview of the concept of POD, why it is needed, the history behind the development of POD, how POD assessments are performed, and how modeling and simulation can be integrated into the execution of a POD assessment. It describes the methods by which POD is determined. This includes detail on the experimental process to acquire the needed data, the mathematical methods to obtain a POD curve, and techniques to assess uncertainty in the POD curve as it is obtained from a limited data set. The concept of model-assisted POD (MAPOD) is introduced, with additional details and representative examples of MAPOD.

Various types of furnaces have been used for cast iron melting. In terms of tonnage, the primary melting methods used by iron casting facilities are cupola and induction furnaces. This article describes the operation and control principles of cupola furnace. It discusses the advantages of specialized cupolas such as cokeless cupola and plasma-fired cupola. Melting in iron foundries is a major application of induction furnaces. The article describes the operations of two induction furnaces: the channel induction furnace and the induction crucible furnace. It explains the teapot principle of pressure-actuated pouring furnaces and provides information on the effect of pouring magnesium-treated melts.

The crucible induction furnace is growing as an alternative melting unit to the cupola furnace due to its low specific power and reduced power consumption during solid melting material. This article details the process engineering features of the crucible induction furnace. It discusses the various processes involved in melting, holding, and pouring of liquid melt in crucible induction furnaces wherein the holding operation is carried out in channel furnace and pouring operation in pressure-actuated pouring furnaces. The article examines the behavior of furnace refractory lining to defects such as erosion, infiltration, crack formation, and clogging, and the corresponding preventive measures to avoid the occurrence of these defects. It elucidates the overall furnace operations, including commissioning, operational procedures, automatic process monitoring, inductor change, and dealing with disturbances.

This article is intended to provide the reader with a good understanding of the underlying science, technology, and the most common applications of focused ion beam (FIB) instruments. It begins with a survey of the various types of FIB instruments and their configurations, discusses the essential components, and explains their function only to the extent that it helps the operator obtain the desired results. An explanation of how the components of ion optical column shape and steer the ion beam to the desired target locations is then provided. The article also reviews the many diverse accessories and options that enable the instrument to realize its full potential across all of the varied applications. This is followed by a detailed analysis of the physical processes associated with the ion beam interacting with the sample. Finally, a complete survey of the most prominent FIB applications is presented.

The selection of materials for welded construction applications involves a number of considerations, including design codes and specifications. Mobile structures have quite different materials requirements for weight, durability, and safety than stationary structures, which are built to last for many years. This article provides an overview of the service conditions. It offers guidance for material selection applications, including bridges and buildings, pressure vessels and piping, shipbuilding and offshore structures, aerospace systems, machinery and equipment, automobiles, railroad systems, and sheet metal. Material properties and welding processes that may be significant in meeting design goals are also described.

This article considers four types of high-strength structural steels: heat-treated low-alloy steels, as-rolled carbon-manganese steels, heat-treated (normalized or quenched and tempered) carbon steels, and as-rolled high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels (which are also known as microalloyed steels). The article places emphasis on HSLA steels, which are an attractive alternative in structural applications because of their competitive price per-yield strength ratios. HSLA steels are primarily hot-rolled into the usual wrought product forms and are furnished in the as-hot-rolled condition. In addition to hot-rolled products, HSLA steels are also furnished as cold-rolled sheet and forgings. This article describes the different categories of HSLA steels and provides a summary of characteristics and intended uses of HSLA steels described in the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) specifications. The article also presents some applications of HSLA steels.