Materials

Cleaning, material behaviour, how things fail, and how they were made in the first place.

The Materials domain covers questions about how to clean a surface without damaging it, why a material cracked, warped, corroded or stained, what a material can and cannot tolerate, and what processes and decisions went into making an object.

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I.

The Materials Territory

  • materials science
  • tribology
  • conservation
  • collections care
  • engineering
  • industrial arts
  • heritage conservation
  • industrial design
  • surface science
  • chemistry
  • failure analysis
  • repair
  • technology education
  • facilities management
  • career and technical education
  • STEM education
  • trades training
  • manufacturing engineering
  • makerspaces
  • engineering education
  • textile care
  • family and consumer sciences
  • tool libraries
  • product design
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Specialist Materials Tools

III.

How the Materials Engines Connect

Every physical object carries three things at once: what it is made of, how it was made, and what that combination can withstand. Those determine what can be done to it and what will damage it.

They depend on each other. A surface finish is a product of how the thing was made, and it decides what will clean it safely. A failure is usually a property meeting a condition it was never suited to. Knowing the process explains the material, and knowing the material explains the failure.

Matter, Made, and Clean work at those three points — what a material is and how it behaves, how the object came to exist, and what can be done to its surface without destroying it.

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Related Reading

Keep Reading Materials Articles
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Related Tools Across the Network