This article focuses on the application of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy in materials science, especially for inorganic and organic polymer solids. It begins with a discussion on the general principles of NMR, providing information on nuclear spin descriptions and line narrowing and spectral resolution and describing the impact of magnetic field on nuclear spins and the factors determining resonance frequency. This is followed by a description of various systems and equipment necessary for NMR spectroscopy. A discussion on general sampling for solid-state NMR, sample-spinning requirements, and extraneous signals is then included. Various factors pertinent to accurate calibration of the NMR spectrum are also described. The article provides information on some of the parameters both beneficial and problematic for processing NMR data. It ends with a description of the applications of NMR in glass science and ceramics.

Flame hardening is a heat treating process in which a thin surface shell of a steel part is heated rapidly to a temperature above the critical temperatures of the steel. The versatility of flame-hardening equipment and the wide range of heating conditions obtainable with gas burners, often permit flame hardening to be done by a variety of methods. These include the spot or stationary method, progressive method, spinning method, and the combination progressive-spinning method. This article provides information on fuel gases used in flame hardening and their selection criteria for specific applications. It also discusses operating procedures and control requirements for flame hardening of steel.

This article discusses the solidification of matrix alloy in cast metal matrix composites (MMCs). It begins with a discussion on the mixing techniques in reinforcement incorporation and wettability of reinforcement. It describes the solidification processes, such as stir mixing and melt infiltration, used in the synthesis of MMCs. The article also discusses the fundamentals of solidification process and presents a computational modeling of particle/solidification front interactions in metal-ceramic systems. The article concludes with information on nanocomposites.

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.

This article discusses the mechanics, surface preparation and principles of metal forming operations such as drawing, bending (draw bending, compression bending, roll bending, and stretch bending), spinning, and straightening of bars, tubes, wires, rods and structural shapes. The article also discusses the machines and tools, including dies and mandrels, and lubricants used for these metal forming operations.

This article describes the roll forming of components of nickel, titanium, and aluminum alloys. The metallurgical characteristics of the roll formed components, such as macrostructures, microstructures, tensile strength, and stress rupture performance, are discussed. The article compares the resulting properties of roll formed and conventionally forged components.

Painting is a generic term for the application of a thin organic coating to the surface of a material for decorative, protective, or functional purposes. This article provides a detailed account of the types and selection factors of paints and the various application methods, including conventional air atomized, airless, and electrostatic spray; roller coating; dip coating; flow coating; curtain coating; tumble coating; electrocoating; and powder coating. Surface preparation methods and prepaint treatments for coating systems are also discussed. The article includes information on quality control procedures, causes of paint film defects, cost calculation, and safety and environmental precautions. The composition and characteristics of organic coatings, coating system selection factors, the types of paints for structural steel, and the applications of paint on structural steel are also reviewed.

Brasses are copper alloys with zinc as the principal alloying element. This article provides information on the chemical compositions and mechanical properties of the three types of brasses: alpha, duplex and beta. It briefly discusses the Unified Numbering System designations, compositions, and classifications of wrought brasses and cast brasses. The article provides a discussion on annealing, recrystallization, and grain growth of wrought brasses. Stress relief of wrought brasses, which is typically conducted below the annealing temperatures, is also briefly described.

This article discusses the classification of the attachment and joining methods in plastics, including mechanical fastening, adhesive bonding, solvent bonding, and welding. It describes the mechanical fastening techniques used to join both similar and dissimilar materials with machine screws or bolts, nuts and washers, molded-in threads, self-threading screws, rivets, spring-steel fasteners, press fits, and snap fits. The article explains solvent bonding used for thermoplastic parts, and tabulates the solvent types used with various plastics. It also describes the surface preparation of plastics, chemical treatment for adhesion, and tabulates the adhesive types for bonding plastics to plastics and plastics to nonplastics. The article briefly describes the welding processes of thermoplastics, including fusion welding (hot-tool, hot gas, extrusion, and focused infrared), friction welding (vibration, spin, and ultrasonic), and electromagnetic welding (resistance, induction, dielectric, and microwave). It concludes with the evaluation of welds using destructive and nondestructive testing.

Material properties are the link between the basic structure and composition of the material and the service performance of a part or component. This article describes the most significant properties that must be considered when choosing a metal for a given application, namely physical properties (mass characteristics and thermal, electrical, magnetic, radiation, and optical properties), chemical properties (corrosion and oxidation resistance) and mechanical properties (tensile and yield strength, elongation, toughness, hardness, creep, and fatigue). The article also contains tables that list room-temperature physical properties, vapor pressures, and mechanical properties for various metals.

This article provides a detailed account on forming operations (blanking, piercing, press-brake forming, contour rolling, deep drawing, cold forming, and hot forming) of various nonferrous metals, including aluminum alloys, beryllium, copper and its alloys, magnesium alloys, nickel alloys, titanium alloys, and platinum metals. It discusses the formability, equipment and tooling, and lubricants used in the forming operations of these nonferrous metals.

Boriding is a thermochemical diffusion-based surface-hardening process that can be applied to a wide variety of ferrous, nonferrous, and cermet materials. It is performed on metal components as a solution for extending the life of metal parts that wear out too quickly in applications involving severe wear. This article presents a variety of methods and media used for boriding of ferrous materials, and explains their advantages, limitations, and applications. These methods include pack cementation boriding, gas boriding, plasma boriding, electroless salt bath boriding, electrolytic salt bath boriding, and fluidized-bed boriding. The article briefly describes the chemical vapor deposition process, which has emerged to be dominant among metal-boride deposition processes.

Electronic structure methods based on the density functional theory (DFT) are used as a powerful tool for assessing the mechanical thermodynamic and defect properties of metal alloys. This article presents the origins of the electronic structure methods and their strengths and limitations. It describes the basic procedures for calculating essential structural properties in metal alloys. The article reviews the approximations and computational details of the pseudopotential plane wave methods used in metal systems. It provides information on the applications of DFT methods in metal alloy systems. The article discusses the calculations of a variety of structural, thermodynamic, and defect properties, with particular emphasis on structural metal alloys and their derivatives.

Many applications of ceramics and glasses require them to be joined to each other or to other materials such as metals. This article focuses on ceramic joining technologies, including glass-metal sealing, glass-ceramic/metal joining, ceramic-metal joining, ceramic-ceramic joining, and the more advanced joining of nonoxide ceramics. It also discusses metallizing, brazing, diffusion bonding, and chemical bonding.

This article briefly discusses popular techniques for metals characterization. It begins with a description of the most common techniques for determining chemical composition of metals, namely X-ray fluorescence, optical emission spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy, high-temperature combustion, and inert gas fusion. This is followed by a section on techniques for determining the atomic structure of crystals, namely X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction, and electron diffraction. Types of electron microscopies most commonly used for microstructural analysis of metals, such as scanning electron microscopy, electron probe microanalysis, and transmission electron microscopy, are then reviewed. The article contains tables listing analytical methods used for characterization of metals and alloys and surface analysis techniques. It ends by discussing the objective of metallography.

This article is an atlas of fractographs that helps in understanding the causes and mechanisms of fracture of miscellaneous metals and alloys and in identifying and interpreting the morphology of fracture surfaces. The metals and alloys covered include tungsten, iridium, magnesium-base, iron-base, molybdenum-base, and tantalum-base materials. The fractographs illustrate fatigue striations, slow-bending fracture, quasi-cleavage fracture, corrosion-fatigue fracture, fatigue crack, intergranular cleavage, microvoid coalescence, tension-overload fracture, crack propagation, impact fracture, and high-cycle fatigue failure.

Babbitting is a process by which relatively soft metals are bonded chemically or mechanically to a stronger shell or stiffener which supports the weight and torsion of a rotating, oscillating, or sliding shaft. This article focuses on workpiece preparation and babbitting methods. Prior to casting, the workpiece must be scrupulously prepared by various cleaning, fluxing, and tinning steps. Babbitting of bearing shells can be accomplished by three methods, namely, static babbitting, centrifugal casting, and metal spray babbitting.

Characteristics of stainless steel that affect its formability include yield strength, tensile strength, and ductility, in addition to the effect of work hardening on these properties. This article discusses the forming process of stainless steel, heat-resistant alloys and refractory metals, detailing the major aspects of forming, including formability, lubrication, and forming methods and tools. The effect of factors such as alloy condition, cold reduction, forming direction (in the case of heat-resistant alloys) and temperature (in the case of refractory metals) on formability is also discussed.

This article uses metal and alloy powders as examples to briefly discuss how to perform the characterization of powders. It begins by reviewing some of the techniques involved in the sampling of powders to ensure accurate characterization. This is followed by a discussion on the important properties to characterize powders, namely the particle size, surface area, density, porosity, particle hardness, compressibility, green strength, and flowability. For characterization of powders, both individual particles and bulk powders are used to evaluate their physical and chemical properties. The article also discusses the important characteristics and compositions of powder as well as impurities that directly affect powder properties. It ends with a description of the ignition and dust-explosion characteristics of organic and metal powders.