Product engineering

The consumer of a product is interested in certain quality factors of a pro duct. Examples of quality factors are taste and shelf life of foods, coveri ng power and color of pigments, flowability and redispersability of granula tes, porosity and abrasion resistance of catalyst carriers, and for instanc e bioavailability of drugs. To achieve the desired quality factors, product s are designed as structured solids, or as solid or liquid dispersions. In general quality factors are decided on a nano- or microscopic-scale. Interd isciplinary cooperation is essential. Efforts to introduce product engineer ing as a teaching subject are worthwhile. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. Al l rights reserved.