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PREFACE
Invention is often born of the need, or just the desire, to improve something.
This simple statement (a restatement, in a way, of the old saw ‘‘necessity is the
mother of invention’’) is the driving force behind the development of the Hand-
book of Materials Selection. The audience for this handbook consists of prac-
ticing engineers and the people who work with them, all of whom need to
determine what materials they might specify, order, and use to make something
better, whether it’s a dental implant, an electronic package, an airplane, or a
highway overpass. The choices are not always as clear cut, nor are they as
straightforward, as they once were. In the past, one material (e.g., steel) or a
class of materials (e.g., metals) might have been all an engineer would have
needed to consider for a particular application. But now different classes of
materials compete for consideration, in order that a manufactured part or assem-
bly be as inexpensive, or as light, or as long-lasting as possible, to name just a
few factors that might have to be taken into account. So whereas an engineer
might have turned in the past to a single supplier’s materials properties tables
to make a selection, now he or she might first turn to the engineer’s most trusted
information source—colleagues, whose collective expertise can be brought to
bear on an improved materials selection procedure.
So an important purpose of a publication such as this handbook is to assemble
a collection of experts to provide advice to an engineer. If a handbook is to do
this job effectively, its assigned experts should have a wide range of professional
experience. They should have worked in a variety of settings. In keeping with
this concept, the Handbook of Materials Selection is the product of the efforts
of over 50 contributors who have experience in five different environments: a
little over 40 percent are from mainly industrial backgrounds; a little under 30
percent are U.S. university faculty members, many with some experience in
industry, while another 10 percent are, or have been until recently, on the faculty
of academic institutions in Egypt, Israel, Germany, and England; the rest work
at U.S. government installations or at research institutes, both private and uni-
versity affiliated.
Whatever their background and experience may be, the contributors to this
handbook have written in a style that reflects practical discussion informed by
real-world experience. The intent is for readers to feel that they are in the pres-
ence of experienced engineers, materials specialists, teachers, researchers, and
consultants who are well acquainted with the multiplicity of issues that govern
the selection of materials for industrial applications. At the same time, the level
is such that students and recent graduates can find the handbook as accessible
as experienced engineers.
As much as practicable, contributors have employed visual displays, such as
tables, charts, and photographs, to illustrate the points they make and the ex-