Materials Engineering

Materials Engineering

Crown Equipment's manufacturing process ensures the customer receives long-term value, productivity, reliability and superior performance with each forklift. At Crown, value starts at the component level and extends to the entire lift truck system. In fact, Crown designs and manufactures 85 percent of its lift truck components. Crown's commitment to the manufacturing process confirms its promise to provide superior performance at the lowest cost of ownership. CrownEquipment is one of the world's largest lift truck manufacturers. Crown's award-winning line of lift trucks maintains a reputation for exceptional product design, engineering and manufacturing. From the smallest hand pallet truck to the highest lifting turret truck, Crown seeks to provide users with safe, efficient and ergonomic lift trucks that lower total cost of ownership and maximize uptime. Headquartered in New Bremen, Ohio, Crown manufactures lift truc ks that are sold throughout the world. For more information, visit www.crown.com

Crown Equipment Manufacturing Processes

"This new patent he's got, I think will really revolutionize the manufacturing process as far as quality and even the accounting part of it and training the workers," said Smith, who chairs Schilling Companies, a holding company for real estate and ... Engineer counts on invention to revolutionize manufacturing, restore his finances

Materials engineering is a field of engineering that encompasses the spectrum of materials types and how to use them in manufacturing. Materials span the range: metals, ceramics, polymers (plastics), semiconductors, and combinations of materials called composites. We live in a world that is both dependent upon and limited by materials.  Everything we see and use is made of materials: cars, airplanes, computers, refrigerators, microwave ovens, TVs, dishes, silverware, athletic equipment of all types, and even biomedical devices such as replacement joints and limbs. Specific properties are required that result from carefully selecting the materials and from controlling the manufacturing processes used to convert the basic materials into the final engineered product. These engineers deal with the science and technology of producing materials that have properties and shapes suitable for practical use.

Activities of these en gineers range from primary materials production, including recycling, through the development and design of new materials to the reliable and economical manufacturing for the final product. Such activities are found commonly in industries such as aerospace, transportation, electronics, energy conversion, and biomedical systems.

The future will bring ever-increasing opportunities and challenges for new materials and better processing. High quality products result from improved processing and more emphasis will be placed on reclaiming and recycling. For these many reasons, most surveys name the materials field as one of the careers with excellent future opportunities. History is measured by innovations in materials.

Developments in metals like iron and bronze enabled advances in civilization thousands of years ago, a synergy which continues today in the fiber optics that have created the World Wide Web and in the development of biomaterials that mimic living tissue. As you explore the field it may be useful to become familiar with some generic categories of materials. Metals are materials that are normally combinations of "metallic elements". These elements, when combined, usually have electrons that are non-localized and as a consequence have generic types of prope rties. Metals usually are good conductors of heat and electricity. They are also quite strong but deformable and tend to have a lustrous look when polished.

Ceramics are generally compounds between nonmetallic and metallic elements and include such compounds as carbides, nitrides and oxides. Typically they are insulating and resistant to harsh environment and high temperatures. Plastics, also known as polymers, are generally organic compounds based upon carbon and hydrogen. They are very large molecular structures. Usually they are low density and are not stable at high temperatures. Semiconductors have electrical properties intermediate between ceramic insulators and metallic conductors.  Composites consist of more than one material type. Fiberglass, a combination of glass and a polymer, is an example. Concrete and plywood are other familiar composites.

More Materials Engineering Articles