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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… Read more
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Save up to 30% on top Physical Sciences & Engineering titles!
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.
Materials scientists, materials engineers in industry, supply chain managers, government officials
1: Why are we worried? The rare earth crisis and its impacts.
2: This is not new. A short history of supply-chain failures.Copper and the end of the Bronze AgeThe Venetian monopoly on glassThe wars of the twentieth centuryCobalt (1978)Molybdenum (1980 and 2004)Rhenium (2006-2008)NiobiumTantalumSiliconLessons learned
3: Assessing the Risks.Defining and measuring criticalityWhat criticality is and is notComparisons among different assessmentsTechnological, social and economic factors causing criticality to riseTipping points. What takes us from criticality to crisis?Lessons learned
4: Impacts. What changed when supply crises happened?Impacts on existing technologies (case studies)Impacts on emerging technologies (case studies)Lessons learned
5: Mitigating Criticality, part I. Technology Substitution.Making do without a materialCosts and trade-offsShort and long-term solutionsLessons learned
6: Mitigating Criticality, part II. Material Substitution.The new challenge of inventing materials on demandEffective R&D tools and techniquesBuilding research teamsMaterials Genome InitiativeA few successesLessons learned
7: Mitigating Criticality, part III. Source Diversification.How are mines developed?Conventional minesUnconventional sourcesCo-productionLessons learned
8: Mitigating Criticality, part IV. Reuse and Recycling.Urban mines vs. conventional minesTechnological vs. regulatory solutionsSuccesses and failuresLessons learned
9: Tactical Responses to Crises and Strategies for Avoiding Them.Starting preparations soonerShortening the R&D timelineReducing complexity – lessons from nature.
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