Role of materials design in maintenance
engineering in the context of industry
4.0 idea
Authors: Dobrzański L.A. 
Published: February 2020

Purpose: The paper presents the issues of designing the maintenance of materials and
products in accordance with the idea of Industry 4.0. The author's views on the need
for augmentation of the Industry 4.0 model were also presented, as well as the author's
original concept that hybrid activities in predictive maintenance and condition-based
maintenance should be preceded by designing material, maintenance & manufacturing
3MD at the stage of the product's material designing and technological designing.
The 3MD approach significantly reduces the frequency of assumed actions, procedures
and resources necessary to remain the condition of this product for the longest possible
time, enabling it to perform the designed working functions. Examples of own advanced
research on several selected, newly developed materials, used in very different areas
of application, confirmed the validity of the scientific hypothesis and the relationship
between the studied phenomena and structural effects and the working functions of
products and their maintenance and indicated that material design is one of the most
important elements guaranteeing progress production at the stage of Industry 4.0 of the
industrial revolution.
Design/methodology/approach: The author's considerations are based on an
extensive literature study and the results of the author's previous study and empirical
work. Each of the examples given required the use of a full set of research methods
available to modern material engineering, including HRTEM high-resolution transmission
electron microscopy.
Findings: The most interesting intellectual achievements contained in the paper include
presentations of the author's original concepts regarding the augmentation of the Industry
4.0 model, which has been distributed so far, which not only requires augmentation
but is actually only one of the 4 elements of the technology platform of the extended
holistic model of current industrial development, concerning cyber-IT production aided
system. The author also presents his own concept for designing material, maintenance
and manufacturing 3MD already at the stage of material and technological design of the
product, eliminating many problems related to product maintenance, even before they are
manufactured and put into exploitation. Detailed results of detailed structural researches of
several selected avant-garde engineering materials and discussion of structural changes
that accompanying their manufacturing and/or processing are also included.
Originality/value: The originality of the paper is associated with the novelty of the
approach to analysing maintenance problems of materials and products, taking into account
the requirements of the contemporary stage of Industry 4.0 development. The value of the
paper is mainly associated with the presentation of original issues referred to as findings,
including the concept of augmentation of the Industry 4.0 model and the introduction and
experimental confirmation of the idea by designing material, maintenance and manufacturing
3MD.