Investigate real material failures and design material selections โ atomic/crystal structure, mechanical properties, metals/polymers/ceramics/composites, heat treatment, corrosion, fatigue, and fracture mechanics. 17 core modules, 5 complete real-project case studies (pipeline corrosion failure analysis, aircraft component fatigue investigation, turbine blade material selection, heat-treatment process design, composite material selection), a 12-template documentation kit, and a certificate of completion. One-time purchase, no account required.
Explore the Full Curriculum โNo. NCEES does not offer a standalone PE Materials or PE Metallurgical exam. Materials topics do appear on the FE exam within the Mechanical, Civil, and Other Disciplines specifications, and a materials engineer who needs to stamp work usually takes the FE and pursues a PE in a related discipline such as Mechanical. For most materials engineers, professional standing comes from industry certifications rather than a license.
The credentials that matter in materials and metallurgy are industry and society certifications. ASM International offers materials and heat-treating certifications and is the fieldโs leading professional society; NACE/AMPP credentials dominate corrosion engineering; ASNT certifications govern nondestructive testing and inspection; and the ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) is the standard credential for quality, reliability, and failure-analysis roles in manufacturing.
It depends on your role. Because there is no PE Materials, many materials engineers never need a license and skip the FE. But if you work in or near a field that requires stamped engineering โ or you may move into one โ taking the FE near graduation keeps the option open, since it is the first step toward any PE. Materials content on the FE shows up under the Mechanical, Civil, and Other Disciplines specifications.
FE materials content covers atomic structure and bonding, crystal structure and defects, stressโstrain and mechanical properties, hardness and material testing, phase diagrams and the ironโcarbon diagram, heat treatment, the metal/polymer/ceramic/composite material classes, material failure (fracture, fatigue, creep), and corrosion fundamentals. It is open-reference using only the on-screen NCEES FE Reference Handbook.
The ASQ Certified Quality Engineer is a widely held credential for engineers working in quality, reliability, and failure analysis โ areas where materials and metallurgical engineers are common. It covers quality systems, statistical methods, reliability, and product/process control. Along with ASM International certifications and corrosion (NACE/AMPP) credentials, it is one of the practical certifications that substitutes for the missing PE in materials careers.
Two different ways materials fail over time โ neither one is a simple overload. Creep: constant stress, high temperature, slow deformation. Fatigue: cyclic stress, any temperature, crack growth.
Why the same fracture load can mean very different things โ and why ductility isn't a fixed property, but depends on temperature, strain rate, and stress state.
Why the hardest available material isn't automatically the strongest or most durable choice โ strength, hardness, and toughness are three different properties that often trade off against each other.
Why mixing the wrong two metals turns one of them into a sacrifice โ the active metal corrodes faster, the noble metal is protected, and surface area ratio can matter as much as which metals you picked.
Why bending a metal makes it both stronger and more brittle โ grain boundaries block dislocation motion (Hall-Petch), and cold working multiplies dislocation density until it starts blocking itself.
Why a 3D-printed part can be strong in one direction and weak in another โ steel and aluminum give the same properties every which way, but wood, composites, and layer-built parts genuinely don't.
Three heat treatments that work together, not interchangeably โ quench for maximum hardness, then temper to trade some of it back for the toughness a real part needs. Annealing is a different process entirely.
Why a metal that springs back perfectly can still be permanently bent a moment later โ and why real forming operations involve both at once, which is exactly what makes springback compensation necessary.
Why the stress-strain curve appears to drop after the ultimate tensile strength, even though the material never stops work-hardening โ the apparent "weakening" is a bookkeeping artifact of dividing by an area that stopped being accurate the moment necking began.
Two numbers on every datasheet, and design uses the smaller one โ a part stressed anywhere near its UTS has already permanently deformed and is functionally failed, well before it fractures.
The dividing line isn't the thermometer โ it's the material's recrystallization temperature. Below it, metal strain-hardens as it deforms; above it, dynamic recrystallization erases that hardening as fast as it forms.
Not 'how many cycles' โ that's the symptom. High-cycle fatigue stays elastic and is stress-life governed; low-cycle fatigue yields every cycle and is strain-life (Coffin-Manson) governed.
An 18-section interactive reference spanning crystal structures, phase diagrams, mechanical properties, hardness, fatigue and the Goodman diagram, heat treatment, corrosion, alloys, composites, Ashby materials selection, characterization, NDT, additive manufacturing, and welding metallurgy. First 3 free to preview.