Manufacturing with Materials module (GA31011)
Develop analytical understanding of engineering materials, manufacturing processes, material testing, and future trends for Engineering Design and Manufacture Graduate Apprentices
Manufacturing with Materials covers the broad range of materials used in engineering industry at SCQF Level 9, developing your ability to select, characterise, and test materials for specific industrial applications.
Topics include manufacturing processes for different material types, heat treatment of metals, corrosion of materials, and future trends in manufacturing materials.
The module develops a systematic, analytical approach to material selection that takes into account both performance requirements and manufacturing process constraints.
Practical laboratory sessions in the Materials Lab give you hands-on experience of destructive testing techniques including tensile, compression, fatigue, and creep testing. Assessment includes a coursework report and presentation requiring you to select and fully characterise a material for a real industrial application, alongside a laboratory report documenting your practical testing findings.
What you will learn
In this module, you will:
- Make appropriate choices of engineering materials and manufacturing processes in a business context
- Understand how to optimise methods and manufacturing processes including forming, joining, and preventing material failure
- Apply and evaluate common destructive and non-destructive testing techniques for materials
- Characterise and compare the suitability of different materials for a specific industrial application
- Discuss the range of materials, technologies, and processes involved in current best practice manufacturing
- Identify future trends in manufacturing materials
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
- Make appropriate choices of materials and manufacturing processes in a business context, and relate these choices to product and process design
- Select and optimise manufacturing processes, including how to form or join materials and how those materials might fail or degrade in use
- Formulate and apply common techniques for destructive and non-destructive testing of materials
- Discuss the range of materials, technologies, and processes involved in current best practice manufacturing, and compose the future trends in manufacturing materials
Assignments / assessments
Coursework Report (50%)
- A written report in which students select a material of their choice for the production of a component with a specific industrial application, providing full characterisation, process selection, material comparison, and identification of appropriate testing methods.
Laboratory Report 50%)
- A report documenting destructive testing of materials (such as tensile, compression, fatigue, or creep testing) performed in the Materials Lab, including analysis and interpretation of results.
This module does not have a final exam.
Teaching methods / timetable
- Lectures covering material types, manufacturing processes, testing methods, and future trends.
- Practical laboratory sessions in the Materials Lab using destructive testing techniques
Laboratory sessions take place in the Heathfield Materials Lab in the Fulton Building, using specialist testing equipment. Lecture recordings are also made available via My Dundee to support flexible study.