Economics

Supposing that an established availability criterion may be met, the designer should look into the economics of the material. Consciously or unconsciously, every designer uses the cost of materials as a prime selection factor. If a design calls for a soft, ductile component, a designer would possibly never even consider gold or silver due to the belief that these are very costly metals, too expensive to be used in a common machine. However, sometimes materials that are in themselves very costly are justified because they offer a unique property advantage or because they are cheaper to use than other lower-cost materials; for instance, this might lead to a simplified design and therefore made at lower cost.

What are the comparative costs of the materials utilized in design? No one country has a ready supply of all metals, ceramic compounds, or the raw stocks for polymers. The supply of these commodities based on everything from droughts to wars. The demand similarly varies, with the economic climate, and therefore prices fluctuate daily in response to the supply and demand. This is not possible to estimate the exact price for a material.