Joseph C. Benedyk has done nine chapters for CINDAS LLC; five aluminum chapters (2219, 7075, 355, 380, and 390), three steel chapters (303SS, 304SS, and H13 die steel), and one chapter on Zirconium alloys (700-706 Zr industrial grades).

As Research Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, he helps to formulate, propose, and manage R&D activities at the Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering Department. and their Thermal Processing Technology Center, providing guidance to graduate students on projects that have an industrial focus. He also serves as Editor of Light Metal Age magazine, which covers important technical and business developments in the aluminum, magnesium, and titanium industries.

He retired from Alcoa (formerly Alumax Transportation Products or ATP) in 2000 as technical director of transportation products for ATP, having led their R&D and product development efforts to introduce aluminum products into the automotive industry.

Benedyk invented, co-developed, and helped to market processes and products (many patented) that resulted in increased sales and new markets in aluminum vehicle frames, driveshafts, ABS valve bodies, and body panels.

The Retrogression Heat Treatment (RHT) process that he invented and developed for aluminum extrusion and sheet products is used to facilitate forming and joining of various heat treatable aluminum alloy components. The RHT process was an enabler for the development of the aluminum slip-in-tube driveshaft at Visteon and the chassis frame for the Panoz roadster, the first aluminum intensive vehicle made in the U.S., and other products that resulted from adoption of the RHT process by the automotive industry.

His work in the automotive industry goes back to the late 1960s when, as manager of metalworking research at the IIT Research Institute, he developed (and named) the squeeze casting process and contracted with Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Gould, Doehler Jarvis, and others in applying this high-integrity casting process to the manufacture of various automotive components.

Benedyk's current goal is the development of a new class of lightweight automotive sheet materials that offer high strength along with good formability and low cost.