Materials, Year 2000 – A perspective
by E.D. Hondros
International Journal of Materials and Product Technology (IJMPT), Vol. 1, No. 1, 1986

Abstract: In this synoptic view of materials up to the Year 200, we emphasise the crucial, enabling role of materials as a precursor to many major technological innovations forecast for the future. Awareness of the importance of materials in government policy-making bodies is now quite evident, as seen by a plethora of initiatives launched in recent times both at a national and multi-laterial level and encompassing the concept of closer R&D collaboration. We consider recent statistics on the abundant world reserves of the principal materials sources and forecasts based on intensity of usage patterns which suggest a slowing down in the rate of growth in consumption. Our analysis supports a view that with the control of man's appetite for raw materials, with an uninterrupted supply of energy, with geo-political stability – not unreasonable assumptions – there are optimistic prospects of assured future supplies of the major industrial materials. This is in contrast to earlier alarmist views on the irreversible exhaustion of the environment leading to a starvation in resources. Short term materials deficiencies could be buffered by national stockpiles. For the longer term, government policy should aim to encourage the conservation ethic, through materials substitution, reclamation and recycling. Finally, we discuss briefly the opportunities made available by science and technology for securing the future for materials and as part of a broadly based conservation ethic – through developing products with a high information content, through improvements in materials processing techniques, through subtle tuning of materials properties, computer-aided design with built-in recyclability, improved durability through surface protection technologies and a deliberate drive towards advanced materials with specific functions.

Online publication date: Sun, 07-Nov-2010

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