Education programmes of job
Nature of work
Materials science Engineering is a profession in the industrial sector which studies the relationship between the microstructure of a material and its mechanical properties. The engineer performs duties during the preparation stage of the material, after manufacturing, or after getting the final product. He/she can select the proper material for each design depending on applied loads and surrounding conditions during implementation.Performs tensile, compression, bending, twisting, shearing, impact, hardness, creep, and fatigue tests on the materials according to international standards to define their mechanical properties.He/she discovers the internal and surface defects in the materials of final products using non-destructive testing techniques according to international standards such as, X-ray, ultrasonic waves, magnetic fields, or colored material penetration tests.He/she improves some mechanical properties of engineering materials through adding some materials or elements to the base material during preparation stage or by performing treatment on the material.He/she should be commitment to the international specification standards for materials and testing
Environment of work
- The material scienceengineer works for 8 hours daily except weekends and official holidays. He/she may have to work overtime even on holidays.
- He/ she can work in all the fields of engineering materials such as: metals, glass, ceramics, polymers, composite materials, biomaterials and timbers.
- The materials science engineer performs his/her job within factories, workshops, testing laboratories or offices. He/she can perform some tests in-situ for special constructions.
- He/ she hasto communicate well with technicians and craftsmen and other engineers who joins production and preparation of materials and with customers during acceptance and inspection of materials.
- He/she analyzes the reasons of accidents by diagnosing the reasons of failure of construction members by inspection of crack surfaces and knowledge of the type of stresses initiated within.
- He/ she can work individually by establishing his/ her own laboratory for testing some properties of some materials and conflict solving between manufacturers and customers.
Professional life
- The material science engineer can perform the work individually or within a team whether in the public or private sectors. The salary starts when working for the public sector by 20000 S. P.
- Write specification books for tenders to purchase equipment for materials preparation (melting, glass and ceramic furnaces; polymers preparing equipment, and composite materials) in addition to equipment and tools for mechanical testing of materials and non-destructive testing.
- The professional course of the material scienceengineer develops by gaining administrative and practical experiences through employment progression and promoting to the bigger circles departments including administrative or R&D sections,development of works and supervise the effective management of resources including employees, information, capital, assets and business.
- Depending on a material science engineer background, he/she can engineer many projects and put plans and strategies for implementation them according to total quality management.
- The engineer may travel to perform some maintenance or calibration work or to gain experience in hydraulic systems.
Sectors of careers
Materials Science engineer can perform job within the following sectors:- Preparation of metallic materials and metallurgical processes.
- Preparation of polymer and composite materials and production of products.
- Glass and ceramic industry.
- Manufacturing and study of biomaterials and their application in bio Medias.
- Destructive and non-destructive testing of materials
Getting the job
A candidate should have a bachelor degree from the department of material science engineering at the faculty of mechanical engineering. He/she should have knowledge in the following subjects: types of engineering materials, types of microstructure of materials, types of testing (destructive and non-destructive), types of machines and tools for mechanical testing, mechanical properties of materials, standard specification for each test, calibration of testing equipment, derivation of properties and mechanical behavior of materials from the resulted test curves. And some other knowledge in the field of strength of materials, machine design, metals and metallurgy, ceramic and glass, polymers and composite materials, timber and biomaterials, fracture mechanics and behavior of materials under elevated temperature. Skills
- Reading and understanding of engineering and industrial plans and the assembly and maintenance plans.
- Performing tests according to standard specifications to determine the mechanical properties of engineering materials.
- Determination of types and percentages of elements to be added to alloys to get specific mechanical properties, and heat treatment procedures for alloys.
- Knowledge in techniques for manufacturing metallic parts
- Knowledge in the structure of polymers and composite materials and knowledge of the content of those materials and their influence on mechanical properties and manufacturing methods.
- Understanding the structure of glass and ceramic materials and their production techniques.
- In addition to a supportive knowledge such as: foreign languages, engineering skills, programming and modeling, quality engineering.
- Knowledge in biomaterials, compatibility, and powder production techniques.
- Performing destructive and non-destructive testing to determine mechanical properties or defects within the structure of the materials.
- Analyze the result of mechanical tests or failure surfaces and find the relationship with material structure and find the mechanism of failure.
Sources and references
- Internal Book of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Aleppo, 2006.
- Arabic Classification of Professions, Arab Labor Organization, 2008.
Summary
The engineer performs the study and determination of properties of materials, analyzes these properties depending on microstructures and understands the effect of microstructural parametric changes on the properties, and hence, controls the properties by addingsome elements by specific amounts.The work includes preparation technical reports, managing employees and improving their skills and developing and ensuring the procedures for occupational safety.