Material and Process Development for Competitive Manufacturing

The serious deterioration in the international balance of payments of the U.S. can be reversed only by increasing the export of manufactured goods. Competition in the global market demands the lower-cost production of high-quality components for manufactured products. This, in turn, requires that product design be integrated with material development and process design, in an approach often described as simultaneous engineering. New technologies must be considered, often in competition with each other. These points are illustrated on the examples of microalloyed steel and austempered ductile iron, and some trends in the use of flat products, coatings, and composites are noted.