Matter, Materials

Materials And Society

Survey of materials in the evolution of humans, from prehistory through the bronze and iron ages, medieval and classical civilizations, to modern chemistry and structure based scientific materials technologies. A publication of the National Academies. Online HTML and free PDF download.

MatWeb Material Property Database

Physical, mechanical, electrical and thermal properties of polymers/plastics, metals, ceramics and other engineering materials. Links to data sheets including information such as dielectric constant, Poisson’s ratio, glass transition temperature, dissipation factor, Vicat softening point, etc.

What is Matter?

From the online textbook Introductory Chemistry, disseminated via the LibreTexts project. See additional sections on Classifying Matter, Conservation of Mass and more.

Material Properties for key structural materials

From the MIT resource Modules in Mechanics of Materials, ”…typical numerical values for selected mechanical properties, for a number of important structural materials”. View/print the PDF file or incorporate the CSV file version into Spreadsheets.

Metals, Metalloids and Nonmetals

A view of the periodic table of elements differentiating metals, metalloids and nonmetals – “The elements can be classified as metals, nonmetals, or metalloids. Metals are good conductors of heat and electricity, and are malleable and ductile … Nonmetals are (usually) poor conductors of heat and electricity, and are not malleable or ductile … metalloids are intermediate in their properties … more like the nonmetals, but under certain circumstances, several of them can be made to conduct electricity. These semiconductors are extremely important in computers and other electronic devices.”

Metal

Ryerson Tull

Suppliers of stainless steel, aluminum, steel, copper alloys and industrial plastics, in coils, sheet, plate, bars, structural shapes, pipe and tubing. Processing & fabricating, flame plasma & laser cutting, precision grinding, fabricating & machining, formed sections and rolled rings.

McNichols, Perforated Metal Products

Perforated Metal, Expanded Metal, Wire Cloth, Screens, etc.

Stainless Plate Products, Inc.

Stainless steel rings, discs, standard and specialty plate flanges, machined products and plasma cut plate.

International Organization on Shape Memory and Superelastic Technologies

Dedicated to disseminating technical education on materials which exhibit shape memory and superelastic properties.

Glass

History of Glass

A site that goes into the history, invention and making of glass. “The very first glass known to stone age people which was used for making weapons and decorative objects, was obsidian, black volcanic glass. The earliest known man made glass are date back to around 3500BC, with finds in Egypt and Eastern Mesopotamia. Discovery of glassblowing around 1st century BC was a major breakthrough in glass making.”

Chemistry of Glass

From the Corning Museum of Glass. “Thousands of different chemical compositions can be made into glass. Different formulas affect the mechanical, electrical, chemical, optical, and thermal properties of the glasses that are produced. There is no single chemical composition that characterizes all glass. Typical glass contains formers, fluxes, and stabilizers.” Also on this site, see the Glass Dictionary, Museum Publications and more.

S. I. HOWARD GLASS

“Serving the flat glass needs for the instrument-makers of the world” surface grinding and polishing, scribe and break, machine edging, high vacuum coatings, drilling, laminating, heat strengthening, sandblasting and frosting with a broad range of glass types for optical and industry.

Newport Glass Works

Prototype and production glass fabricator; sawing, edging, shaping, machining, precision polishing, tempering, core drilling, sand blasting, blanchard grinding, annealing, thin-film coating, custom molded parts and more. See their how-to on grinding & polishing telescope mirrors, part 1 & part 2.

Macalaster Bicknell Company

Certified Corning Distributor – full line of Pyrex glass tubing, glass rod & blanks, re-usable glassware, equipment and supplies.

Wood

Wood in Our Future

A book from the National Academy Press covering the use of wood, its residues and by-products. Includes environmental implications, life-cycle analysis and natural resource conservation. Available on-line in full text html version and free to download PDF. Paperback and Ebook also available for purchase here.

Compwood

Precompressed Hardwood for easy bending, even in the cold condition. Finished components may be bent in more than one plane and in small radii of curve.

Jelinek Cork

A variety of Cork Products from a company that’s been around for 150 years. Also see their Cork Store

Manton Cork

Standard and custom-made industrial & consumer cork products.

APCOR – Association of the Portuguese cork industry

Information and resources from APCOR, the Portuguese Cork Association (Associação Portuguesa de Cortiça), which ”…represents, promotes, divulges and carries out research in the Portuguese cork industry”. Portugal produces more cork than any other country in the world. Cork production is a sustainable process, as the bark is stripped to harvest the cork while the tree continues to live and grow.

Plastic

Regal Plastics

full line distributer of Plastic, Sheet, Rod, Tube Film and Sign & Graphics Products

ACRYLITE acrylic polymers

Large producer of acrylic and specialty sheet.

San Diego Plastics

Distributor of plastic sheet, rod, tube & film. Can also supply formed, machined, or fabricated parts to your specifications.

TAP Plastics

Fiberglass, plastic and related products, custom fabrication. Store locations on the west coast for walk-in convenience.

Misc

Alkemi - Recycled Solid Surface Material

Composite material composed of 60% post-industrial scrap aluminum and polymeric resins. Available in ½” and ¾” thicknesses and standard sheet sizes of 36” × 120” and 36” × 96” as well as custom sizes. Check out their Fabrication Manual [PDF] which covers how to work with these materials.

SCRAP - Scroungers Center For Reusable Art Parts

A creative reuse center, store and workshop space founded in 1976 in San Francisco, California. Donations of re-usable materials such as textiles, paper, jewelry findings, wood, buttons and plastics are collected from businesses, institutions and individuals and distributed to art and educational groups.