Critical Materials

Alexander King

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780128187890
• eBook ISBN: 9780128187906
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Materials Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Critical Materials takes a case-study approach, describing materials supply-chain failures from the bronze age to present day. It looks at why these failures occurred, what the consequences were, and how they were resolved. It identifies key lessons to guide responses to current and anticipated materials shortages at a time when the world's growing middle class is creating unprecedented demand for manufactured products and the increasingly exotic materials that go into them. This book serves as a guide to materials researchers and industrial end-users for finding effective approaches to shortages of specialty materials. The lessons in the book are also appropriate to those who use materials and for those involved in manufacturing supply-chain management and industrial design. - Instructs the reader on how to select the most effective strategies to deal with materials supply-chain failures - Discusses technical feasibility, economic viability and the political context - Includes an extensive use of case studies to illustrate key concepts of criticality

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations and acronyms
• Preface
• 1: What happened to the rare earths? Monopoly, price shock, and the idea of a critical material
• 2: This is not new. A short history of materials criticality and supply-chain challenges
• 3: Assessing the risks
• 4: What changed after the rare earth crisis?
• 5: Mitigating criticality, part I: Material substitution
• 6: Mitigating criticality, part II: Source diversification
• 7: Mitigating criticality, part III: Improving the stewardship of existing supplies
• 8: Tactics and strategies for the future
• Index