WHY METALLURGY?

In this age of microchips, computers and cell phones what is the role of a metallurgist? If you look at the recruitment activities of professionals in India, it seems that there is nobody like a metallurgical/materials engineer. All metallurgical engineering graduates along with all other streams of engineers are recruited by I.T./Software companies. Hardly any manufacturing company advertises for metallurgical engineers. Is this situation tenable? Should we close down all metallurgy/materials departments in universities and professional institutes? I feel that such an eventuality will be disastrous for the future of the country. Without any bright youngster going into manufacturing, what will happen to our industries? For a stable economy, manufacturing is as important or more as the service industry where all the microchips and computers go. Many metal industries are expanding and, at least in India the production of many of the primary metals is far below our future demands.

There seems to be a misconception that the job of a metallurgical/materials engineer is superfluous and most of his functions are actually carried out by chemical/mechanical engineers. At this juncture it is worthwhile to understand the role of a metallurgical engineer.

WHAT IS METALLURGICAL/MATERIALS ENGINEERING?

As engineering is the application of scientific principles to the benefit of the society, the engineer develops and runs technologies to produce goods or facilities used by man. A metallurgical engineer is no exception; he uses the principles of metallurgy to produce, process and supply metals and alloys to the society. In the production and processing of metals, chemical and mechanical engineers are required. But the metallurgical engineer decides ‘how to produce and process’. He decides the extraction methods and the chemical engineer along with mechanical engineers erect the plant and run the process to the specifications set by the metallurgical engineer. Similar is the case of metal processing like casting, mechanical working or fabrication, where the metallurgical engineer selects the process and runs it with the help of mechanical engineers. At every step in the extraction and processing of metals, the presence of the metallurgical engineer is essential because he is the one knowledgeable about the characteristics of the metal and who knows how the metal will behave under any set of conditions. Why?

Metals occupy a very important position in engineering and technology because of their unique properties. High strength, ductility, and formability are the properties which make metals essential for engineering structures, buildings, machines etc. High thermal and electrical conductivities and beneficial magnetic properties of metals are used electrical and other related applications. Many of these properties depend strongly on the chemical composition and internal structure of the metal. Metals are rarely used in engineering applications in their pure form. Almost always alloys are used. Alloys of metals are produced by combining two or more different metals. The properties of the material are very sensitive to the nature and amount of alloying elements present in it. All metallic materials are made up of small blocks called grains. An alloy may contain one type of grains or of different types having different chemical compositions. Most of the engineering properties of alloys strongly depend upon the type, size and distribution of these grains. Whole of these arrangements are referred to as the microstructure of the alloy. A metallurgist controls the properties of metals by controlling their chemical composition and the microstructure by alloy additions and thermal/mechanical treatments. Hence, only a metallurgist can properly produce metals and metallic components with desired shape and properties. He requires the help of chemical and mechanical engineers to do this.

Metallurgical engineers should be better equipped with chemical/mechanical engineering skills so that his employability and usefulness to the industry increases.

More on metallurgy later.

gblogger