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Is There Any Difference Between Metallurgy and Materials Engineering?

  1. fletcher
    November 27th, 2009 at 07:22 | #1

    Metallurgical and materials engineers extract, process, refine, combine, and manufacture natural substances to create new materials that are stronger and resist corrosion. Metallurgical engineers work with metal only. Teams of metallurgy and materials engineers created the US Air Force’s “stealth” technology that makes a fighter plane’s surface nearly invisible to radar.
    Hope this is a start that gives you what you need.

  2. エイミー
    November 27th, 2009 at 07:26 | #2

    Sort of.
    Many curriculums include metallurgy as part of materials engineering, since the field is so broad. However, some schools will have an actual program in metallurgy.
    I am a metallurgist, and did my undergraduate in materials engineering. Many courses were not relevant to metals (polymers, ceramics, etc.), but I was able to take a couple that were. This provided sufficient knowledge to choose this field as a path.
    As far as careers go, there is a difference. Metallurgists will deal with processing, failure, and creation of metals, amongst other things. A materials engineer *may* do some of this, but will most likely be dealing with non-metals in their job.

  3. iam2inth
    November 27th, 2009 at 08:11 | #3

    Metallurgy is just a small part of materials engineering. In the US, most metallurgical engineering programs have now broadened their scopes to become materials science and engineering departments.
    The primary classes of materials are metals, ceramics, polymers, composites, and semiconductors. Metals are pretty self explanatory. Ceramics are generally defined as inorganic and non-metallic. While this does include pottery and toilets, there’s a lot of functional ceramics out there being used in high tech applications such as lithium ion batteries and semiconductor processing. Polymers are understood best as plastics, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Composites are a newer class of materials comprising of materials such as carbon fiber, Kevlar, and fiberglass. They are called composites because these fibers are embedded in an epoxy matrix. Semiconductors are materials used in computer chips and optical devices, such as silicon, germanium, and gallium arsenide.
    And remember, without advancements in materials technology, there can be little or no advancement in other technologies as everything is made out of materials.

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