Industries
Virtually all industries demand people with backgrounds in materials
engineering. These people may be monitoring impurities in steel destined
for an assembly line, shrinking the size of circuits to improve the
reliability of a pager, or designing new materials for a missile casing.
Industries may employ materials engineers to reduce the overall weight of
a vehicle, remove limitations in power plants, or research product
failures for a liability suit.
 Sectors
There are four general sectors of industry that employ materials
engineers:
 Primary Materials Producing
These companies provide basic materials to other companies who manufacture
a component for a product or the end product itself. Examples are steel
companies, glass companies, polymer powder producing companies, etc.
Typically these are relatively large organizations. This sector comprises
a small number of companies that support a much larger number of
manufacturing businesses.
Manufacturing
These companies produce a component or end product using materials from
Primary Producing companies. This sector includes a large number of
companies ranging in size from a few to thousands of employees. This
sector represents many different industries: transportation,
electrical/electronics, machinery, computers/office, biomaterials, durable
goods, and non-durable goods.
Service
Companies in this sector provide support for others. Employers include
consulting firms, research and development organizations, construction
companies, utilities, engineering services, communications companies, and
research groups.
Other
Educational institutions, government, legal organizations, healthcare,
business services, finance, insurance, and wholesale/retail are some of
the other employers of materials engineers.
Note:
Some resources in this section are provided by The Minerals, Metals &
Materials Society
and the US Department
of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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