Engineering: sacrificial material

Self-tutoring about engineering: the tutor mentions the idea of sacrificial material.

When you know there will be wear at a junction, replacement is inevitable. The wisdom proceeds that you can purposely make one side of the junction more prone to wear, so you know it will wear out first. Since it’s “softer”, the other side will wear it out, but remain integral.

The product is then designed so the soft side is easy to replace. Such is the idea and execution of a sacrificial component.