Rapid growth in advanced industries has created a demand for newer materials and processing technologies that can be used to develop engineering components with better thermo-mechanical, wear, and corrosion resistance properties. Recent advances in the processing of lightweight materials for engineering applications include research into lightweight composite materials that utilize various micro- and nano-reinforcements, for example, carbonaceous materials like graphene or carbon nanotubes (CNT), carbides, metals oxides, bio-fibers, cellulose, lignin particles and both domestic and industrial wastes.

These lightweight composites are developed by various processing techniques, based on selected matrix materials. For example, for hand lay-up, compression molding is the traditional method for developing polymer matrix composites, and liquid metallurgy and powder metallurgy are the conventional methods for developing metal matrix composites. Recently, bottlenecks in the production of components of lightweight composite materials can be resolved through additive manufacturing approaches. In some cases, surface coating methods are used in developing lightweight composites, and so the mechanical properties, tribology, corrosion, and machinability behavior of the composites can be inspected.

This Special Issue aims to publish novel work related to the development, processing, and characterization of lightweight composites. We invite both academics and industry professionals to contribute their original research and review articles in the areas of tribology, corrosion, machinability, and process parametric optimization for lightweight composite materials for engineering applications.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Polymer matrix composites
• Metal matrix composites
• Surface coating of lightweight materials
• Surface treatment and modification of composites
• Bio-composites
• Parametric optimization in tribology and machinability of composites
• Additive manufacturing of composites
• Nano-filler reinforced composite
• Bio-fiber extraction and processing
• Secondary or post-processing of composites