Materials science or materials engineering includes understanding relationships between the structure of materials at atomic or molecular scales and their macroscopic properties. It includes elements of applied physics and chemistry, as well as chemical, mechanical, civil and electrical engineering. With significant media attention focused on nanoscience and nanotechnology in recent years, materials science has been propelled to the forefront at many universities.
Radical materials advances can drive the creation of new products or even new industries, but stable industries also make incremental improvements and troubleshoot issues with currently used materials. Industrial applications of materials science include materials design, cost-benefit tradeoffs in industrial production of materials, processing techniques (casting, rolling, welding, ion implantation, crystal growth, thin-film deposition, sintering, glassblowing, etc.), and analytical techniques (characterization techniques such as electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, calorimetry, nuclear microscopy (HEFIB), Rutherford backscattering, neutron diffraction,small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), etc.).
Material science also deals with the extraction of materials and their conversion into useful forms. For example, ingot casting, foundry techniques, blast furnace extraction, and electrolytic extraction are all part of the required knowledge of a metallurgist/engineer. Often the presence, absence or variation of minute quantities of secondary elements and compounds in a bulk material will have a great impact on the final properties of the materials produced, for instance, steels are classified based on 1/10th and 1/100 weight percentages of the carbon and other alloying elements they contain. Thus, the extraction and purification techniques employed in the extraction of iron in the blast furnace will have an impact of the quality of steel that may be produced.
As the materials technologies markets continue to grow, new inventions and innovations will continue to occur. However, there are still a variety of segments that have not garnered significant investment capital due to market immaturity, and in some cases, a lack of sustainable business models.
New areas for materials technologies include design and use of ecomaterials, development and use of optical properties of self-assembled quantum dots, and computational nanomaterial science. Also, polymers for lithographically assisted nanostructures, silicon technologies for photovoltaic cells and other applications, and nonmagnetic semiconductor-based spin filters and other technologies are garnering increasing attention by both the scientific and business communities.
Strong patent rights are imperative to encourage investments in R&D and for commercialization of materials technologies. Small innovative firms rely on patent rights to build businesses around materials technologies.
Patent rights also encourage established manufacturers to invest in these new technologies to improve existing product lines. These patented technologies cover a broad spectrum of inventions including materials technologies.
>> To see examples of patents recently issued to protect materials science, processes and technologies inventions, click the above  icon.
>> The IP professionals at HULSEYIP possess a long and successful history in protecting, commercializing, and enforcing the IP rights of our clients in a broad array of materials and welding technologies, as well as experience is a variety of other materials processes and technologies. To see a selection of patents and patent applications prepared and prosecuted by us over the years, click the above icon. |
