Introduction Ask most people how a product gets made and they will describe a machine cutting metal. That is one step out of ten, and it is not even the one where most of the money is won or lost. By…

Introduction A gear does not come out of a machine as a gear. It starts as a steel billet, gets hammered into a rough disc, gets its teeth cut, gets hardened, gets ground, and only then becomes something you would put…

Introduction In early 2021, car plants across the world stopped. Not because of demand, or labour, or steel but because a handful of semiconductor fabs could not supply enough chips, some of them costing barely a dollar each. Vehicles worth lakhs…

Every engine block, every manhole cover, every stainless steel pan handle in your kitchen started life as a liquid. Somebody melted metal, poured it into a hollow shape, and let it cool. That is the whole idea behind the casting process…

Introduction Take a plastic water bottle and look at the very bottom. You will find a small raised dot in the centre, roughly the size of a pinhead. Now take a milk jug or a detergent bottle and look at the…

Introduction Open the electrical distribution board in your building and look at the black components inside the switch bodies, the breaker housings, the terminal blocks. Now find an old saucepan with a black handle, or a set of melamine plates, or…

Introduction Look at the water tank on almost any rooftop. It holds a thousand litres, it has no seams, no joints, and no weld lines anywhere. It was made in one piece. Now ask yourself how. You cannot injection mold it…

Introduction Here is a question that catches most students out. Is ultrasonic welding a solid state process, or does it melt the material? The honest answer is: both, depending on what you are welding. Weld two copper battery tabs and nothing…

Introduction An aircraft wing panel, a car windscreen, and the display glass in your phone all have something in common. None of them is welded, riveted or bolted in place. All three are glued. That word does the process a disservice,…

Introduction Riveting is often taught as the old way of joining metal the method that built the Eiffel Tower and the Titanic before welding made it obsolete. That is only half true. Welding did replace riveting in boilers, bridges and ships….