Manufacturing Processes

Material Properties
 Strength

• The ability of a material to stand up to forces being applied without it

bending, breaking, shattering or deforming in any way.
 Strength

TENSILE STRENGTH
• Tensile strength is the maximum amount of pull that a material will
withstand before breaking.
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH
• This is the ability of the material to resist compression.
SHEAR STRENGTH
• The ability of a material to resist fracture under shearing load.
 Tensile Strength

• The ability of a material to stretch without breaking or snapping.

 Strength

• The strength of a material is its resistance to failure by permanent

deformation (usually by yielding).
• A strong material requires high loads to permanently deform (or break) it -
not to be confused with a stiff material, which requires high loads to
elastically deform it.
• Many engineering components are designed to avoid failure by yield or
fracture (cranes, bikes, most parts of cars, pressure vessels).
• In structural applications, brittle materials are nearly always used in
compression (e.g. brick, stone and concrete for bridges and buildings).
 Specific Strength

• Specific strength is strength divided by density.

• In transport applications (e.g., aeroplanes, racing bikes) high strength is
needed at low weight.
• In these cases materials with a large "specific strength" are best.
• Specific strength is strength/density - it is mostly just used for comparing
materials, so the units are not important.
 Strength

• Two measures of strength are defined - yield strength and ultimate tensile
strength.
• Strength on the selection charts means yield strength.
 Strength
Units & Values
• Strength is measured by applied stress, which is equal to force/area. The
units of stress are N/m2 or Pascals (1 Pa = 1 N/m2 ; 1 MPa = 1 N/mm2
 Elasticity

• Elasticity is the ability of a material to return to its original shape after any
force acting upon it has been removed.
 Elasticity

MODULUS OF ELASTICITY
• The engineering significance of E is great, because it shows the elastic
resistance of the material to strain. Elastic resistance to deformation is
called stiffness.
E = 30 X 106 psi for steel.
E = 10 X 106 psi for Al.
• Steel is three times as stiff as Al. A steel rod elastically supporting a tensile
load will elongate only one third as much as the same size Al. rod
elastically supporting the same load.
• Under equal elastic bending loads, similar behavior is observed i.e. an Al.
beam will deflect three times as much as steel beam of the same
dimensions.
• Modulus: A quantity expressing the relation b/w a force and the effect
produced.
 Elasticity

• The tensile modulus of a material can be taken as a measure of the stiffness

of the material.
• The higher the value of the modulus the stiffer the material, i.e. the greater
the force needed to produce a given strain within the limit of
proportionality reign.
• Mild steel has a tensile modulus of about 70 kN.mm-2. A strip of mild steel
is thus stiffer than a corresponding strip of Al. Alloy.
• Plastics have relatively low tensile modulus values when compared with
metals, e.g. polythene has a modulus of about 0.1 to 0.2 kN.mm-2.
 Elasticity

• Young's modulus measures the resistance of a material to elastic

(recoverable) deformation under load.
• A stiff material has a high Young's modulus and changes its shape only
slightly under elastic loads (e.g. diamond). A flexible material has a low
Young's modulus and changes its shape considerably (e.g. rubbers).
• A stiff material requires high loads to elastically deform it - not to be
confused with a strong material, which requires high loads to permanently
deform (or break) it.
• The stiffness of a component means how much it deflects under a given
load. This depends on the Young's modulus of the material, but also on
how it is loaded (tension, or bending) and the shape and size of the
component.
• Specific stiffness is Young's modulus divided by density (but should more
properly be called "specific modulus").
 Elasticity

• Stiffness is important in designing products which can only be allowed to

deflect by a certain amount (e.g. bridges, bicycles, furniture).
• Stiffness is important in springs, which store elastics energy (e.g. vaulting
poles, bungee ropes).
• In transport applications (e.g. aircraft, racing bicycles) stiffness is required
at minimum weight. In these cases materials with a large specific stiffness
are best.
 Elasticity

Measurement
• Tensile testing is used to find many important material properties. The
compression test is similar but uses a stocky specimen to prevent bending.
 Elasticity
Units & Values
• Young's modulus is equal to elastic stress/strain. Strain has no units so the
units are the same as stress: N/m2, or Pascals (1 Pa = 1N/m2 ; 1 GPa = 1000
N/mm2
 Plasticity

• The ability of a material to be changed in shape permanently.

 Ductility

• The ability of a material to change shape (deform) usually by stretching

along its length.
 Ductility

•Metals such as copper and m/c steel, which maybe drawn into wire are ductile
materials.
•Ductile materials show a considerable amount of plastic deformation before
breaking.
•Materials, which have a high degree of ductility, are suitable for cold drawing
operations such as wire drawing.
•Many engineering components or structures depend upon ductility for satisfactory
service. A car’s bumper is a good example.
•Ductility is usually measured by the amount of elongation expressed as a percentage.
•Percentage elongation = ( Final length – Initial Length ) / Initial length X 100
Final length is the length when the pieces are put together after breaking.
 Malleability

• Malleability is that property of a metal, which permits it to be hammered or

rolled into other sizes and shapes.
 Malleability

•Malleable metals can be rolled, forged or extruded, since these are all processes involving
pressure are invariably hot-working processes; that is they are carried out on heated ingots or
slabs of metal.
•Soft metals such as gold or lead which can be worked easily are said to be very hard are said to
have poor malleability.
•Generally metals become more malleable at higher temperatures.
•The property of malleability is connected with the action of re-crystallization.
•When the metal is worked internal strains are set up and the material is said to be work hardened.
•These strains are released when a critical temperature, which is different for each metal, is
exceeded.
•In some cases the critical temperature is below room temperature and the strains setup working
automatically released as they are caused.
•The reason that lead and gold are so malleable is that they have very low temperature of re-
crystallization.
 Brittleness

• Brittleness is that property of metal which permits no permanent distortion

before breaking.
• Cast iron is a brittle metal, it will break rather than bend under shock or
impact.
• A brittle material shows little plastic deformation before fracture. The
material used for china teacup is brittle. Thus because there is little plastic
deformation before breaking, a broken teacup can struck together again to
give a cup the same size and shape as the original.
• Grey cast iron is a brittle material; it has percentage elongation of about 0.5
to 0.7%. Mild steel is a reasonably ductile material and has a percentage
elongation of the order of 30%.
 Brittleness

• Thermosetting plastics tend to behave as brittle materials.

• Thermoplastic materials can be ether brittle or ductile depending on the
temperature.
• Melamine are thermosetting materials and have percentage elongations of
about 1% or less. High-density polythene, a thermoplastic, can have
percentage elongation as high as 800%.
 Toughness

• Toughness is the property of a material to withstand shock or impact.

 Toughness

• Toughness is the resistance of a material to being broken in two, by a crack

running across it - this is called "fracture" and absorbs energy.
• The amount of energy absorbed during fracture depends on the size of the
component which is broken in two. The amount of energy absorbed per
unit area of crack is constant for a given material, and this is called the
toughness.
• A tough material requires a lot of energy to break it (e.g. mild steel),
usually because the fracture process causes a lot of plastic deformation; a
brittle material may be strong but once a crack has started the material
fractures easily because little energy is absorbed (e.g. glass).
• Toughness is opposite condition to brittleness.
 Toughness

• High toughness is particularly important for components which may suffer

impact (cars, toys, bikes), or for components where a fracture would be
catastrophic (pressure vessels, aircraft).
• Toughness varies with temperature; some materials change from being
tough to brittle as temperature decreases (e.g. some steels, rubber).
• A famous example of this problem in steels was the battleships which
broke in two in cold seas during the second World War!
 Toughness

• Detailed toughness tests use specimens with starter cracks, and measure
the energy per unit area as the crack grows.
• Simple toughness tests use specimens of fixed size with a machines notch,
and just measure energy needed to break the specimen.
• The load is incresed until the specimen fractures. The toughness (energy
per unit area) is found by analysing the load-displacement curves for
different specimens with different crack lengths.
 Toughness

Izod test
• A specimen of standard size with a notch on one side is clamped in a vice.
A heavy pendulum is lifted to a height h0 above the vice and is released. It
swings under gravity, strikes the specimen and continues to height h1
shown by the final reading on the dial gauge.
• Impact energy = energy absorbed = mass of pendulum * g * (h1 - h0)
where g is the acceleration due to gravity
 Toughness

Units & Values

• Toughness is usually measured in energy per unit area or Joules/m 2
(J/m2)Impact energy from Izod or Charpy tests is simple energy in Joules
(J).
 Hardness

• The ability of a material to resist scratching, wear and tear and indentation.
 Hardness

• The hardness of a material may be specified in terms of some standard test

involving indentation e.g. the Brinell, Vicker and Rockwell tests, or
scratching of the surface of the material, the Moh test.
• A material, which resists penetration, is said to be hard. It will usually have
low ductility, high tensile strength and will often give good resistance to
wear and will be difficult to machine. Hardness is usually measured by the
degree to which some very hard shape can be pressed into the material.
 Hardness

• This is known as Moh’s scale and consists of the following:

1. Talc
2. Gypsum
3. Calcite
4. Fluorite
5. Apatite
6. Orthoclase
7. Quartz
8. Topaz
9. Corundum
10. Diamond
 Hardness

Significance of HARDNESS in mechanical engineering

Sometimes hardness is induced in the parts/machine components after manufacturing them.
Purpose: To increase their life by making them more resistive to wear out.
Example: A hardened knife will be having more life (remain sharp for more time) as compared to
unhardened knife.
Example: (Rc45) Bit of screwdriver is hardened to make it more durable and longer lasting.
Examples:
•Scissors
•Gears
•Surgical Instruments
•Sprocket for chain drive
•Rollers for bearings.
 Conductivity

The ability of a material to conduct electricity.