The Potential Of New Materials For Automotive Engineering

The multitude of technical papers, articles in newspapers and publications describing research policy points at the importance of materials research, development and testing, materials technology in general, for any kind of future technological progress. In this context the necessity to support mostly revolutionary developments is mentioned very often, resulting in the danger to neglect evolutionary developments of known and conservative materials. The technological challenge in materials consists not only of inventing new materials but to a large degree of the research of the as yet unknown or not sufficiently known relations between the material and the field behavior of a constructional part on the one hand and material and behavior in the production process on the other hand. The optimation of these relations leads finally to the industrial use of such materials in a worldwide competitive market. Both points of view are being treated with particular regard to automotive engineering.