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RE: Fun to know: Selecting materials in engineering
Great post! I studied Mech. Eng for 3 years and have been a HVAC/R Tech for well over a decade and I'm still amazed at the poor choice of materials used in a lot of residential and even commercial products these days. My belief is that the absolute cheapest price to get products out the door or simply planned obsolescence (probably both) is definitely the biggest factor in the manufacturing/design decisions. What's the point of building something to last 30 years if it costs twice as much and as a result nobody buys it? Build it to last 5 maybe 10 years and charge less, but sell more of them. O well.
As some say, no need to use better material than the one customer wants
We humans are dumb when buying stuff, as we choose cheaper solutions and sometimes end up paying more when replacing the cheap alternatives.
But I do that myself too. I can think of something good enough so I do not need to spend 30% more for a better material.
However I am delighted some companies think carefully through even what plastics they are using for the best results instead of choosing cheapest one.