Traditional Materials in Design

Next to wood the traditional natural materials are the ceramics. Ceramics are used in a wide range of structures from traditional buildings to insulators like ball arches (shown below)

Other metallic ores are mostly used in the design of ornaments and handicrafts. As an outcome of industrial revolution, almost all the major applications of mechanical design today are based on two metals and their alloys – these are Steel and Aluminium.

Steel is available in four major types:

Low Carbon Steels (carbon content less than 0.25%): used in structural reinforcements, car body panels, cans and pressed sheets ;

Medium Carbon Steels (carbon content 0.25 to 0.5%) used in rail-road tracks and other lower volume applications like cranks and shafts

High Carbon Steels (0,.5 to 1.6% carbon): used in tools, chisels, cables and wires.

Stainless Steels: used in high end applications like trucks, trailers, food-processing Applications, furnace and boiler applications, jet-engine components etc. One of the earliest applications of stainless steel took place in the rail-body panels. The Zephyr group of locomotives were constructed using stainless steel. Starting from 1930, for about three decades, this group of trains remained functional in the USA. The advantage of stainless steel was apparent in terms of saving weight and reducing maintenance cost.
However, with the advent of aluminium, polymers and composites the popularity of stainless steel has reduced significantly.