This article provides a brief description of commercially important thermal spray processes and gives examples of applications and application requirements. The processes covered are flame, wire arc, plasma, high-velocity oxyfuel processes, detonation gun, and cold spray methods. Examples are provided of the applications in aerospace, automotive, and medical device industries as well as the use of thermal spray as an additive manufacturing technique.

The chapter covers various aspects of biotribology in the context of dental care, orthopedic implants, haptics, eyewear, and stents and fixation devices. It also addresses the issue of biocompatibility and the effects of friction and contact pressure on skin.

This chapter provides guidelines and insights on the selection of materials, coatings, and treatments for friction and wear applications. It begins with a review of the system nature of tribological effects, the subtleties of friction, and the selection idiosyncrasies of the material systems and lubricants covered in prior chapters. It then presents a systematic approach for selecting tribomaterials, using an automotive fan motor as an example.

This chapter describes the effect of temperature and strain rate on the mechanical properties and forming characteristics of aluminum and magnesium sheet materials. It discusses the key differences between isothermal and nonisothermal warm forming processes, the factors that affect heat transfer, die heating techniques, and press systems. It also discusses the effect of forming temperature, punch velocity, blank size, and other parameters on deep drawing processes, making use of both experimental and simulated data.

This chapter describes the molecular structures and chemical reactions associated with the production of thermoset and thermoplastic components. It compares and contrasts the mechanical properties of engineering plastics with those of metals, and explains how fillers and reinforcements affect impact and tensile strength, shrinkage, thermal expansion, and thermal conductivity. It examines the relationship between tensile modulus and temperature, provides thermal property data for selected plastics, and discusses the effect of chemical exposure, operating temperature, and residual stress. The chapter also includes a section on the uses of thermoplastic and thermosetting resins and provides information on fabrication processes and fastening and joining methods.

Cold spray coatings technology has the potential to provide surface enhancement for applications in sectors such as defense and aerospace, oil and gas, power generation, medical, automotive, electronics, and railways. The ability to deposit clean metallic coatings is used in applications requiring corrosion/oxidation protection, erosion/wear protection, additive manufacturing, and fabricating free forms. This chapter discusses the function, advantages, and benefits of some of these applications.

This article provides a high-level overview of thermal spray technologies and their applications and benefits. It is intended to educate members of government, industry, and academia to the benefits of thermal spray technology. The article describes the value of thermal spray technology with examples of application success stories. A few applications critical to thermal spray and market growth are briefly discussed. The article also summarizes the key research areas in thermal spray technology.

Nonferrous metals are of commercial interest both as engineering materials and as alloying agents. This chapter addresses both roles, discussing the properties, processing characteristics, and applications of several categories of nonferrous metals, including light metals, corrosion-resistance alloys, superalloys, refractory metals, low-melting-point metals, reactive metals, precious metals, rare earth metals, and metalloids or semimetals. It also provides a brief summary on special-purpose materials, including uranium, vanadium, magnetic alloys, and thermocouple materials.

Engineers have many materials to choose from when dealing with weight-related design constraints. The list includes aluminum, beryllium, magnesium, and titanium alloys as well as engineering plastics, structural ceramics, and polymer-, metal-, and ceramic-matrix composites. This chapter provides a brief overview of these lightweight materials, discussing their primary advantages along with their properties, behaviors, and limitations.

The conversion of feedstock into a shape involves the application of heat and pressure, and possibly solvents. This chapter discusses the operating principle, advantages, limitations, and applications of such shaping processes, namely additive manufacturing, cold isostatic pressing, die compaction, extrusion, injection molding, slip casting, slurry processes, and tape casting. Information on equipment setup, requirements, and the various factors influencing these processes are described. In addition, the chapter provides information on novel approaches and processing costs applicable to these shaping processes.

This chapter describes the applications with the greatest impact on titanium consumption and global market trends. It explains where, how, and why titanium alloys are used in aerospace, automotive, chemical processing, medical, and military applications as well as power generating equipment, sporting goods, oil and gas production, and marine vessels.

Aluminum is the second most widely used metal in the world. It is readily available, offers a wide range of properties, and can be shaped, coated, and joined using a variety of methods. This chapter discusses some of the key attributes of wrought and cast aluminum alloys and the classifications, designations, and grades of available product forms. It also explains how aluminum alloys are used in aerospace, automotive, rail, and marine applications as well as in building and construction, electrical products, manufacturing equipment, packaging, and consumer durables such as appliances and furniture.

This chapter provides details on powder-binder processing for three materials, namely precipitation-hardened 17-4 PH stainless steel, cemented carbides, and alumina. The types of powders, binders, feedstock, shaping processes, debinding, sintering cycles, compositions, microstructure, distortion, postsintering treatments, and mechanical properties are presented for each. The shaping options include powder-binder approaches such as binder jetting, injection molding, extrusion, slip and slurry casting, centrifugal casting, tape casting, and additive manufacturing. Sintering options are outlined with respect to attaining high final properties.

This chapter discusses radiography methods using x-rays, gamma rays, and neutrons. It begins with a discussion on the applications and principles of radiography followed by sections providing information on the sources of radiation, classifications, and characteristics of x-ray tubes. Three primary attenuation processes of electromagnetic radiation, namely photoelectric effect, Compton scattering, and pair production, are covered. The chapter then discusses the principles of shadow formation, the process involved in the conversion of radiation into a form suitable for observation, and the characteristics of x-ray film. It provides information on various exposure factors in film radiography. The chapter provides a description of the characteristics that differentiate neutron radiography from x-ray or gamma ray radiography. The application of neutron radiography is described in terms of its advantages for improved contrast on low atomic number materials, discrimination between isotopes, or inspection of radioactive specimens.

Root cause of failure in automotive electronics cannot be explained by the failure signatures of failed devices. Deeper investigations in these cases reveals that a superimposition of impact factors, which can never be represented by usual qualification testing, caused the failure. This article highlights some of the most frequent early life failure types in automotive applications. It describes some of the critical things to be considered while handling packages and printed circuit board layout. The article also provides information on failure anamnesis that shows how to use history, failure signatures, environmental conditions, regional failure occurrences, user profile issues, and more in the failure analysis process to improve root cause findings.

Stainless steels have a wide variety of applications for household products, food-handling equipment, major appliances, medical equipment, and industrial equipment. Stainless is also featured in many architectural designs and monuments. Many of the most important applications of stainless steel can be found in the transportation industry, where both the cutlery martensitic and the chromium-nickel austenitic stainless steels have been used. This chapter provides a detailed discussion on these applications.

This chapter provides an introduction to powder processing of binders and polymers. It sets the context for the remainder of the book by providing an overview of the topics discussed in the subsequent chapters and by providing introduction to powder-binder fabrication and customization of feedstock and describing the challenges in component production. The chapter also summarizes alphabetically a few key concepts in powder-binder processing.

The management of a failure analysis (FA) laboratory requires a broad range of activities to optimize the efficiency of the operation. The purpose of this article is to stimulate readers to consider the various aspects of FA laboratory operations and their respective business management requirements. The various aspects include: staffing, laboratory organization, lab design and operations, strategic development, financial management, and metrics and measurements. References for further reading and examples of resource materials are also included.