This book presents valuable up-to-date information for active researchers and engineers, and would certainly form a solid basis for any future research, in the field of abrasive technology, aimed at creating new and practical machine tools, systems and processes, or identifying new characteristics.

X-ray powder diffraction is a long-established and invaluable technique which is widely applied to the characterization of crystalline materials. The method has traditionally been used for phase identification, quantitative analysis and for the determination of structural imperfections. In recent years however, its use has been extended into exciting new areas such as the extraction of three-dimensional microstructural properties.

This 5-volume set comprises the Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Processing and Manufacturing of Advanced Materials, "THERMEC2003", held from July 7-11, 2003 at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Leganes, Spain, under the co-sponsorship of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS), USA.

Numerous commercial processes operate at temperatures exceeding 500 degrees Celsius. The materials used in high-temperature structures have design constraints which are in addition to those on materials used at, or near to, room temperature. These important additional constraints include time-dependent inelastic strain (creep), thermal stability of the microstructure and high-temperature corrosion. The addition of these constraints to those of low cost, strength, toughness, machinability, formability, weldability, and combinations of these, has led to the intensive development, over the past 50 years, of an extensive group of metallic materials: generally referred to as "high-temperature alloys".

This book comprises the proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Metastable, Mechanically Alloyed and Nanocrystalline Materials (ISMANAM), which was held in Seoul, South Korea, from the 8th to the 12th September 2002. The 127 selected papers, from over 28 countries, which are presented here cover recent scientific discoveries in fundamental research as well as novel engineering applications in the fields of metastable and nanocrystalline materials. Many important issues concerning bulk metallic glasses, bulk nanocrystalline materials, mechanical alloying and mechanochemistry are discussed.

The history of abrasive technology dates from the very dawn of mineral utilization and continues to this day with the development of precision-finishing technology.The current requirements of high precision and high quality surfaces for critical components and devices, such as silicon wafers in the semiconductor industry, lenses in the precision optics industry, and dies in the injection molding industry, make the technology of abrasives more important than ever, and essential, albeit indirectly, for the rapid development of information technology. This book therefore plays a valuable role in presenting recent advances in the field of abrasive technology.

This First International Materials Symposium in Portugal was organised in order to provide a forum within which material scientists and engineers, drawn from a very wide range of specialties, could present and discuss new research findings and compare points of view concerning advanced materials.

Texture is a fundamental material characteristic which results from the microstructural evolution that takes place during various processes, including the thermomechanical deformation of materials. Therefore, texture-related phenomena will continue to be of great importance, because of their scientific interest as well as their effect upon industrial applications, in the 21st century.

This book contains the proceedings of Symposium L of the International Conference on Materials for Advanced Technologies, held from the 1st to the 6th of July , 2001 in Singapore. The aim of this important meeting was to bring together researchers and engineers having very different backgrounds, and thus promote free discussion and the exchange of ideas across many interdisciplinary boundaries.

This 3-volume set comprises the proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Aluminium Alloys: Their Physical and Mechanical Properties. The papers present the latest viewpoints of the world's leading aluminium experts concerning the basic understanding, and application, of aluminium alloys. The proceedings cover a wide range of related topics and represent the views of both academia and industry.