The following is a descriptionof the presentation:

For years, better products have been enabled by improved materials of construction. For the most part, these materials have been metallic, although engineering plastics and some ceramics also have been contributors. At the beginning of the 21st century, the Tau Beta Pi list of the ten most important engineering achievements of the 20th century contained seven items that could not have been accomplished without advances in materials technology. Today, continuing advances in metallic structural materials are still critical to the creation and production of competitive products. However, federal funding for this effort has dwindled in favor of other trendy topics, leaving a significant list of "unfinished business." This talk will describe some of the past advances in structural materials and outline some important opportunities going forward. As appropriate, the reality (or lack thereof) of some of the trendy topics also will be assessed and some relative value comparisons will be offered.

This webcast is available to TMS members at no charge through support from the Structural Materials Division of TMS.

TMS is interested in your thoughts regarding these webcast products. Please e-mail questions or comments to tdunlap@tms.org.

Publisher: TMS
Product Format: Webcast
Duration: 50 minutes
Date Published: April 28, 2008