Dear Colleagues,

Reducing carbon emissions is an essential part of achieving a green world and sustainable future.  As a result, there are currently many investments in technologies to improve manufacturing processes targeted at reducing greenhouse gases (GHG).  Research and development activities are now well established, focusing on reducing carbon emissions either of the manufacturing process or of the product's functioning. Weight reduction is the generic strategy adopted to reduce carbon emissions in the naval, automobile, and aerospace industries. This approach is inherently centred around smart designs, including the intelligent selection and combination of dissimilar materials. Many new processes favour a hybridization approach to achieve compounded functional performance index such as high strength-to-weight ratio. The light alloys currently used in industry are those based on aluminium, titanium, and newly developed magnesium alloys. Other functional materials, such as fibre-reinforced composites, copper and lithium alloys, are also employed for special functions. Combining dissimilar materials requires consolidation for a device to function as a whole.

Devices in the automobile and aerospace industries are multicomponent by design. It is necessary to understand how these multicomponent (lightweight engineered alloys) can be joined in a consolidated manner to achieve the desired weight reduction and still function as a whole. It is crucial to understand how well new and different joining methods of sheet materials can fit to meet both the structural and functional properties. Therefore, the joining of sheet metal is a topical issue.

This Special Issue aims to collate manuscripts addressing new innovations and development in the joining dissimilar sheet metals in engineering components, which ultimately leads to a sustainable future. 

Dr. Rezwanul Haque
Dr. Ayodele Olofinjana
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• welding
• brazing
• adhesives
• clinching
• riveting
• self-piercing riveting
• nut and bolt
• components consolidation
• sheet metal joining
• hybrid joining