It helps if these properties show unassailable balance sheets and strong franchises.

FORBES: Risks Skewered To The Downside

At TWB Co. a single laser welds steel sheets of different properties into a single raw sheet that Cadillac can have stamped into a door panel without any of its own welds.

FORBES: Man of steel

Sheets of glass separated by a vacuum could bring windows' insulating properties up to par with insulated walls, yet allow them to be nearly as thin as single panes of glass.

ECONOMIST: Green homes

Stronger steel usually requires tradeoffs on other properties, like ductility, a metal's ability to be shaped into forms like sheets and wires.

FORBES: Steely Dan