Selecting metal materials - Introduction

One of the dominant themes in Aristotle's work is the theology of the four causes. Thus, in the creation of an object, intervene [1] :

• the material cause: the material, i.e. the matter assigned a role ;

• the efficient cause: the worker, the craftsman who acts on this material;

• the formal cause: the form given to the object;

• the final cause: the intended use of the object.

Today's engineer is more concerned with function, then form, than with material, and remains constrained by the golden triangle: cost, quality, delivery.

The "design" of industrial products tends to order the creative process: starting from a presumed market "need", defined by a "specification" that describes the functions sought, the requirements and the constraints that will result, the designer will develop the project in stages of increasing precision: shapes, materials, processes, and evaluate the cost.

The emergence and development of computer hardware and software tools soon led designers to attempt to systematize the conceptual approach to drawing (CAD), design (CAD) and manufacturing (CAM). The ability to represent possible solutions, and to calculate their "responses" to specification requirements, in an increasingly short space of time, led to greater concern for optimization during the design phase, a concern which today fuels a wide-ranging debate [2] [3] [4] [5].

At the same time, the world of available materials was "exploding" with the competitive development of "modern" metal alloys, polymers, composite materials... As early as the 1970s, Alvin Toffler coined the term "hyperchoice" [6]. The designer's question, "How can I use this material to make my object?" tends to become "Which material best fulfills the functions I need? and this does not make choices any easier.