Importance of metallic materials

Metallic materials account for a very large proportion of mechanical parts, as can be seen from the articles in the "Machine components" section of this issue of Techniques de l'Ingénieur. And this has been the case for long enough to suggest that the situation is stable, and performance definitively optimized.

This would be true if performance requirements didn't force us to look for new design solutions.

This would be true if the materials themselves had not been called into question in terms of their composition (which is becoming increasingly tightly controlled), the way they are produced, and the way they are processed by deformation, molding, machining and assembly.

Formulations of behavior laws under imposed stresses and temperatures, derived from the mechanics of continuous media, are increasingly taking...