Materials and Design: The Art and Science of Material Selection in Product Design

by Michael F. Ashby (Author), Kara Johnson (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.24

  The history of man is recorded, recovered and remembered through the designs he created and the materials he used. Materials are the stuff of design, and today is not the age of just one material, but of an immense range. Best selling author M. F. Ashby guides the reader through the process of selecting materials on the basis of their design suitability. He and co-author Kara Johnson begin with the assumption that products in a given market sector have little to distinguish between them in either performance or cost. When many technically near-equivalent products compete, market share is won or lost by the industrial design of a product: its visual and tactile attributes, the associations it carries, the image it creates in the consumer's mind and the quality of its interface with the use and the environment. Ashby and Johnson address the problem of selecting materials for industrial design from a unique viewpoint. They acknowledge that materials have two overlapping roles, in technical design and in industrial design. The technical designer has ready access to materials information. Industrial designers often do not have equivalent support. Materials Selection in Industrial Design presents groundbreaking new information that, on one hand introduces engineering students to the principles of Industrial Design and to the idea that the selection of materials can directly affect the aesthetic qualities of the object. On the other hand they introduce industrial design students and practising industrial designers to engineering parameters through an accessible and holistic approach.

• Used

  Paperback
  2009

  $13.49

  Materials are the stuff of design. From the very beginning of human history, materials have been taken from the natural world and shaped, modified, and adapted for everything from primitive tools to modern electronics. This renowned book by noted materials engineering author Mike Ashby and industrial designer Kara Johnson explores the role of materials and materials processing in product design, with a particular emphasis on creating both desired aesthetics and functionality. The new edition features even more of the highly useful materials profiles that give critical design, processing, performance and applications criteria for each material in question. The reader will find information ranging from the generic and commercial names of each material, its physical and mechanical properties, its chemical properties, its common uses, how it is typically made and processed, and even its average price. And with improved photographs and drawings, the reader is taken even more closely to the way real design is done by real designers, selecting the optimum materials for a successful product. * The best guide ever published on the on the role of materials, past and present, in product development, by noted materials authority Mike Ashby and professional designer Kara Johnson--now with even better photos and drawings on the Design Process* Significant new section on the use of re-cycled materials in products, and the importance of sustainable design for manufactured goods and services* Enhanced materials profiles, with addition of new materials types like nanomaterials, advanced plastics and bio-based materials