Res Mat - materials & components

Res Mat - materials & components

1. Properties

   • Strength
     • Ability to withstand forces without breaking
   • Hardness
     • Ability to withstand scratching, rubbing or denting
   • Toughness
     • Hard to break or snap
   • Elasticity
     • Stretch and bend and return to their normal shape
   • Plasticity
     • If a material can change shape permanently without breaking
   • Impact resistance
     • Ability to withstand a sudden force without cracking
   • Chemical resistance
     • If it degrades when in contact with chemicals
   • Flexibility
     • Bend but don't necessarily return to normal shape
   • Strength to weight ration
     • Strong but don't weigh much

2. Woods and Boards

   • Soft woods
     • Fairly cheap
     • Pine, cedar, yew
   • Hard woods
     • More expensive
     • Oak, elm, mahogany
   • Plywood
     • Strong, layers, more expensive
   • MDF & chipboard
     • Compressed wood chips

3. Metals

   • Ferrous
     • Mild steel
       • Strong, rusts easily, can't be hardened, cheap
     • High carbon steel
       • Can be hardened, not easy to work, rust, fairly expensive
     • Stainless steel
       • Hard, won't rust, very expensive
   • Non-ferrous
     • Aluminium
       • Light weight, corrosion resistant, not as strong, cheaper
     • Brass
       • Quite strong, corrosion resistant, malleable, aesthetics, expensive
     • Copper
       • Soft, malleable, electrical conductor, very expensive

4. Plastics

   • Thermoplastics
     • Recyclable, easy to shape
     • Acrylic, ABS, HIPS, LDPE, HDPE
       • Ac. - hard, shiny, brittle
       • ABS - tough, durable
       • HIPS - rigid
       • LDPE - soft & flexible
       • HDPE - stiff & strong
   • Thermosetting
     • Non-recyclable, rigid
     • Epoxy resin, urea-formaldehyde
   • Self-finishing - corrosion resistant. Use wet/dry paper or buffing machine