9 Processing and Material Selection Free Online FlashCards

What chain connects processing to material performance?

Processing changes a material’s structure, which changes its properties and ultimately its performance.

How can casting conditions reduce a metal part’s performance?

Cooling conditions affect grain structure and can cause shrinkage cavities, porosity, or segregation, which may reduce fatigue strength or toughness.

What can forming do to metal properties?

Plastic deformation can work-harden metal and create directional properties. Annealing can restore ductility after cold work.

How does heat treatment change a metal?

Heat treatment uses controlled heating, holding, and cooling to alter a metal’s structure and properties.

How are thermoplastics commonly shaped?

Heating lets a thermoplastic flow into shape; cooling sets that shape. Temperature, cooling rate, and flow can affect its structure and dimensions.

What happens when a thermosetting polymer is cured?

A thermosetting polymer is shaped and then chemically cured into a network that does not melt again in the same way.

What happens to a ceramic during sintering?

Sintering heats shaped ceramic particles so they bond and porosity decreases; the part shrinks as it densifies.

How does fiber alignment affect a composite?

Aligned fibers can give a composite high stiffness and strength along the fiber direction, but lower properties across it.

What defines additive manufacturing?

It builds parts layer by layer, enabling complex geometries and potentially reducing some tooling needs.

Why must additively manufactured parts be qualified for their use?

Layer direction, thermal history, and process settings can affect defects and properties, so parts must be qualified for their intended use.

What should guide the start of material selection?

Begin with the part’s function and translate it into performance requirements and constraints, rather than starting with a preferred material.

What costs belong in a material–process comparison?

Compare the finished-part cost, including material use, tooling, processing, scrap, inspection, maintenance, and expected replacement or repair.