Material Selection Guide

Welcome to the Material Selection Guide. If you are inexperienced with material selection, this page will walk you through the process of choosing the optimal material for a given part. The page also contains an extensive guide to common engineering materials that aims to be useful for both novice and experienced engineers alike. If you have experience with a material not listed here, feel free to add it below in the material table section.

This guide covers the two most important material classes the we will be using: metals and polymers. Certain composites (including CFRP, GFRP, phenolics, and certain reinforced thermoplastics used in 3D printers) are also covered is a limited capacity. These encompass the vast majority of materials used for mechanical design on Husky Robotics. Ceramics, glasses, exotic materials such as cermets, semiconductors, or metallic glasses, natural organic materials, and any other classes of material are not covered due to their limited applicability to Husky Robotics projects. Materials for electromagnetic applications such as piezoelectrics, electrical wiring, or magnetic cores are also not covered here.

Part One - Primary Design Considerations
The two main environments that determine the required material properties for a part are the manufacturing environment and the service environment once it is placed into its final assembly. There is often a tradeoff between these two environments: a material that is easier to manufacture is often not as high performance once in service as one which is more difficult. The goal of material selection is to find the material that is the easiest to manufacture and lowest cost while still satisfying the design requirements given by the service environment.

Service Environment Considerations
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 * + Design Considerations

Manufacturing Environment Considerations
The following is a very brief overview of how to select broad categories of manufacturing process and which materials are suitable for them. Refer to Manufacturing Process Guide for more detail on these processes and how to design for them.