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OCR for page 5
1
Introduction
THE OVERAEE INTENT OF THE FIEED of materials science and engineering
(MS&E) is to enable the production of components and systems to im-
prove the function, effectiveness, efficiency, and economy of products
and thereby enhance the quality of life and standard of living for humankind.
MS&E cuts across both the science and engineering of materials and the relation-
ships of matter and its use. MS&E deeply affects all segments of life, from
society at large to industry to the global environment.
The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) stated in 1995 that
advanced materials were the foundation and fabric of manufactured products. To
support their assertion, NSTC cited the role of advanced materials in providing
robust structures for fuel-efficient automobiles and damage-resistant buildings,
enabling electronic devices that can transmit signals rapidly over long distances,
protecting bridges and other surfaces from wear and corrosion, and endowing jet
engines and airframes with sufficient strength and heat tolerance to permit super-
sonic flight. The NSTC concluded that many leading commercial products and
military systems could not exist without advanced materials and that many of the
new products critical to the nation's continued prosperity will come to be only
through the development and commercialization of advanced materials
(NSTC, 1995~.
Although it is difficult to quantify, materials make a significant contribution
to the economy. According to data compiled by the U.S. Department of
Commerce, the value of industry shipments of basic raw materials (Standard
s
OCR for page 6
6
MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
TABLE 1-1 Value of Industry Shipments of Basic Raw Materials in 1996
SIC Code Description Value of Shipments (billions)
2821 Plastic materials and resins $40.1
2824 Organic fibers $12.9
331 Blast furnace and basic steel products $74.5
333 Primary nonferrous metals $15.4
Source: DOC, 1998.
Industrial Classification1 [SIC] codes 2821, 2824, 331, and 333) amounted to
approximately $143 billion in 1996 (Table 1-1~. This value significantly underes-
timates the contribution of materials to the economy, however. Because of the
vital role of MS&E in the processing of materials, another approach to estimating
the contribution of materials to the domestic economy would be to include all
parts formed by a single fabrication technology, such as casting, molding, forg-
ing, or stamping. Adding the value of the shipments for materials-intensive manu-
factured products in SIC codes 282, 30, 32, 33, and 34, the contribution of
materials to the U.S. economy is roughly $685 billion (Table 1-2~. This figure
overestimates the contribution of materials because manufacturing costs are in-
cluded in the total. An average of these estimates of upper and lower bounds
yields a value of about $400 billion.
It could be argued that even $685 billion understates the contribution of
materials to the economy because a modern economy (and much of the
$3.8 trillion manufacturing sector [DOC, 19991) could not exist without materi-
als. Advances in MS&E have enabled improvements in many sectors of the
economy. For example, the materials components of complex manufactured sys-
tems (e.g., jet engines, automobiles, and computer-chip and information-storage
computer components) are not included in these data.
It is generally agreed that the United States leads the world in materials
research and development (R&D), especially the development of advanced mate-
rials (NAS, 1998~. Nevertheless, many are concerned that the United States does
not lead the world in the commercialization of advanced materials. The objective
of the committee convened by the National Materials Advisory Board of the
National Research Council that conducted this study was to determine changes
1 Standard Industrial Classifications were replaced with North American Industrial Classification
System (NAICS) for the 1997 Economic Census. NAICS codes for basic raw materials include 3311
(Iron and Steel Mills and Ferroalloy Manufacturing), 3313 (Alumina and Aluminum Production and
Processing), 3314 (Nonferrous Metal [except Aluminum] Production and Processing), and 3252
(Resin, Synthetic Rubber, and Artificial and Synthetic Fibers and Filaments Manufacturing). Data
for 4-digit NAICS are incomplete at press time.
OCR for page 7
INTRODUCTION
TABLE 1-2 Value of Industry Shipments of Fabricated Raw Materials
7
Industry
Classification
Value of Shipments
(billions)
SIC NAICS Descnption 1996 1997
282 3252 Plastic materials and synthetics $59.6 NA
30 326 Plastics and rubber products manufacturing $150.5 $159.0
32 327 Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing $82.4 $88.3
33 331 Primary metal manufacturing $178.3 $192.9
34 332 Fabricated metal product manufacturing $214.0 $233.7
Source: DOC, 1998, 1999.
both within the MS&E and end-user communities that would facilitate the adop-
tion of new materials, reduce the number of "missed opportunities," and improve
interactions between materials end-users and the MS&E community. This report
focuses on the linkages between materials R&D and the commercialization of
materials and suggests ways to promote the introduction of advanced materials
into the marketplace to ensure that the United States maintains its leadership in
industrial sectors that depend on materials.
TAXONOMY
One of the most daunting aspects of any study of the MS&E discipline is
defining the field. Although materials and processes have fueled technological
progress for thousands of years, the field of MS&E per se did not exist prior the
1960s. The designation of MS&E as a single discipline arose from the coales-
cence of three previously distinct, materials-specific fields. The roots of MS&E
as a discipline are grounded most directly in the fields of metallurgy, ceramics,
and polymer science. Although many other disciplines (e.g., physics, geology,
electronics, optics, chemistry, and biology) overlap with MS&E and have made
indispensable contributions to its development as a formal discipline, these three
materials-based disciplines are at the heart of the origin of MS&E. A practical
definition of the field is the study of science and engineering principles related to
the discovery and understanding, production, use, recycling, and disposal of ma-
terials.
An alternative definition was put forth in Material Science and Engineering
for the l990s: Maintaining Competitiveness in the Age of Materials (NRC, 1989~.
Rather than defining the field by classifying materials by categories, this defini-
tion focused on the common elements of the MS&E discipline, regardless of
material type (Figure 1-1~. Formatted as a tetrahedron, MS&E is defined as the
interrelationships among structure/composition, properties, performance, and
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8
MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Performance
Synthesis/
processing
Structure
Properties
FIGURE 1-1 Graphical representation of the connections among the common
elements in the MS&E R&D discipline (independent of material type). Source:
NRC, 1989.
synthesis/processing for all types or forms of matter. Advanced carbon fibers, for
example, arguably have an extraordinaryproperty: their very high Young's modu-
lus, which is a measure of intrinsic stiffness. The modulus of carbon fibers is
directly and inextricably linked with the method used to produce them (i.e., their
processing). The processing defines the fiber's microstructure, from which its
extraordinary stiffness is derived. Thus, the interrelationships between the prop-
erty, structure/composition, and processing ultimately determine the performance
of carbon fiber when it is incorporated into the skin of a fighter jet, the shaft of a
golf club, or the spar of a sailboat.
Although the utility of materials developments was considered by the study
committee, one limitation of this 1990-vintage tetrahedron is that it does not
convey the importance of utility. Thus, it shows no explicit link to the users of
materials or the ultimate beneficiaries of MS&E research. The concerns of the
MS&E discipline appear to be limited to the four corners of the tetrahedron and
doing something useful with materials becomes someone else's responsibility
(e.g., a designer, a marketing person, or an entrepreneur). Thus, the MS&E mis-
sion of the early l990s was focused on the pursuit of fundamental scientific and
engineering information rather than on finding or assisting in the development of
valuable new uses for this information. As a result, information tended to be
gathered with little regard for its eventual utility, and users needs did not signifi-
cantly influence the direction of R&D. Too often, new material systems appeared
to have little or no foreseeable user value or potential for production scale-up.
The absence of links joining the MS&E R&D community and materials users
OCR for page 9
INTRODUCTION
9
should raise concerns with both groups because materials are more than a scientific
curiosity. In fact, they are fundamentally important to commerce and society. How-
ever, because raw materials per se are a commodity for which there is rarely a direct
end-use demand, their extrinsic value is difficult to assess. Most consumers do not
generally use steel or polyethylene for their own sake. The demand for materials is
derived from the demand for the goods in which they are used.
The term "commercialization" implies one of two possibilities: either the
embodiment of a technology must be sold in a way that is both profitable and
sustainable, without corporate or government subsidies, or it must be used in a
component or system that is similarly sold. In short, to be considered a "commer-
cial" product, normal transactions in the market involving its manufacture and
sale must result in someone making a profit (NRC, 1997~. Commercial consider-
ations are critical because the links between MS&E and ultimate end-users must
pass through as many as a half dozen intermediaries, all of whom have needs,
requirements, and constraints that must be satisfied. For example, end-user indus-
tries have been reducing their product development cycle times in order to in-
crease their competitiveness. Thus, materials developers at the raw-material pro-
duction stage might also have to reduce their development cycle times to meet the
needs of end-user industries.
Based on the broad interests of the MS&E community, which extend all the
way from the extraction, synthesis, and refining of a material to its end use and
disposal/recycling, a definition of the MS&E community must explicitly link the
community with its users. A complete description of MS&E must incorporate
materials categories (e.g., metals, polymers, ceramics, composites), functionally
differentiated end-use categories (e.g., electronic materials, biological materials,
structural materials), functional interrelationships (i.e., structure, properties, pro-
cessing, and performance), as well as the user needs and constraints throughout
the materials value chain (e.g., extraction, synthesis, refining, parts making, sys-
tems integration, end-use, and recycling or disposal). In order to try to capture
these complexities, the definition for MS&E established by the NRC in 1989
should be revised as follows.
To extend the usefulness of all classes of materials, the field of MS&E seeks
to understand, control, and improve upon five basic elements:
· the life-cycle performance of a material in an application (i.e., in a com-
ponent or system)
· the design and manufacture of a component or system, taking advantage
of a material's characteristics
· the properties of a material that make it suitable for manufacture and
application
· the structure of a material, particularly as it affects properties and utility
· the synthesis and processing by which a material is produced and its
structure determined
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10
MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Structure/
composition
Properties
Performance
End-user needs/
constraints
Synthesis/
processing
FIGURE 1-2 Graphical representation of the connections among the common ele-
ments in the entire MS&E discipline, including the end-user (independent of materi-
als type).
An updated version of the graphic defining MS&E, linking the needs and
constraints of the users of materials with the common elements of MS&Eis
shown in Figure 1-2. MS&E should serve the near-term and long-term needs of
the ultimate users of products. These needs should influence the direction of
MS&K R&D, whether basic or applied, short term or long term.
STUDY MODE OF OPERATION
To determine changes in both the MS&E and end-user communities that
would facilitate the adoption of new materials, reduce the number of "missed
opportunities," and improve interactions between materials end-users and the
MS&E community, the committee conducted in-depth studies of three industry
sectors: the automotive industry, the jet-engine industry, and the computer-chip
and information-storage industries. In addition to the expertise of the committee
members, the committee invited representatives of the MS&E community, the
industrial research communities, the supply companies, and the systems integra-
tors for each of the case-study industries to attend workshops and to share their
expertise with the committee. The goals of the workshops were to determine
(1) user needs and business practices that promote or restrict the incorporation of
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INTRODUCTION
11
materials and processes innovation, (2) the manner in which priorities in materi-
als selection are determined, (3) mechanisms to improve links between the mate-
rials community and the engineering disciplines, and (4) programs (e.g., educa-
tion, procedures, information technology) that could improve these linkages.
Summaries of the workshops are provided in Appendices A, B. and C. The
information gathered in these workshops was synthesized by the committee and
used as a basis for this report and the recommendations.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
raw materials
