Design News spends a lot of time talking about and covering the
trends, advances, etc., of materials. When you think about it,
there aren't too many designs that occur today without a
discussion of the materials that comprise that design. That's
because the choice of a material, or more specifically making
the wrong material choice, can doom your design before it gets
beyond the prototype stage. What kinds of materials are we
talking about? Obviously, the choice of materials is based on
the application you are designing for. And the typical design
factors come into play -- what's my budget, what's the life
expectancy of the product, what type of environment will the
product be used in, and so forth. Not until you can answer those
basic questions can you begin to narrow down the choices. When
you get to that next step, you learn that there a fairly
exhaustive list of materials: composites, including carbon and
glass fiber; elastomers; ferrous alloys (cast iron, carbon,
etc.); specialty alloys like stainless st