SAE Update - January 2022 - 20

TECH FOCUS:
MATERIALS
Holistic materials selection
retrievable. This is a reason for maintenance
of clear design reasoning and documentation,
and there is generally always a reason to
maintain and retain the reasoning for
decisions made in the design process.
Reconstitution of the design basis may be
difficult or impossible. The need for
assumptions regarding the design introduces
risk into the evaluation, for which a new
design might not meet the initial intent or
current criteria.
One example of vintage material
replacement is the phase-out of volatile
organic compounds and other harmful
elemental plating techniques. Cadmium
plating is often a requirement in numerous
standard fastener applications. Due to
health and safety concerns, this plating
process is not often performed for
contemporary materials. There may be some
material available that had previously been
coated with cadmium, but many suppliers
do not currently utilize the process (or
obtaining material using the process may be
prohibitively expensive). There is often a
need to change from one standard part
number (or specification) to another
through comparison. I like to utilize the
standard " Metals & Alloys in the Unified
Numbering System, 13th Edition " , HS1086/2017,
to compare and convey material
specifications and chemistry information,
especially to non-metallurgists. The book
serves as a type of " Rosetta Stone " to
translate between essentially industry jargon
about the specifications.
20
January 2022
Another tool recently made available is
the OnQue tool from SAE that allows
filtering of the digital standards by various
criteria. Translating bolt dimensions from
specification to specification might be nontrivial
even for an experienced engineer who
is familiar with fastener sizes and shapes.
Regardless of the specific design needs, a
materials engineer can help support the
process of integrating the various
engineering functions to arrive at a viable
design for a strong product. It is openness to
new information and willingness to iterate
that allow a team to maximize the capability
of a design. Material selection is one stage of
the design process, and there are tools and
specialists available to support emerging
and complex design needs. Navigation of
these complexities requires a network of
capable engineers who seek continuous
improvement and knowledge to improve
design practices and systems for the
betterment of the end-user and to support
public safety. Rather than performing steps
in series, the integration of talents within an
organization is necessary to support various
viable designs. Hopefully, material selection
can take its place as a vital step in processes
for design, production, and implementation.
Note from author: Opinions expressed are
from the author only and are not reflective of
the opinions or positions of current for
former employers. Materials selection must
be made by competent engineers on a caseby-case
basis with design system and
application criteria in mind. n
UPDATE
https://www.sae.org/onque-digital-standards
SAE Update - January 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SAE Update - January 2022
