Materials science and engineering is a multidisciplinary area of research which encompasses the physics, chemistry and engineering of every class of material. In recent years, the field has attracted increasing attention, following the discovery of new types of material and their subsequent application in new technologies.

This work presents its readers with the most recent advances in the fields of machining and advanced manufacturing technology. It will be of especial valuable to production and research engineers, research students and academics.

The last five decades have seen an explosion of interest in exploring the possibilities of new materials for industrial and commercial applications. Materials Technology is now recognized as being one of the most important factors driving the development and growth of a nation’s economy. The sciences of design, processing, manufacturing and materials utilization are crucial elements contributing to the growth of new industries. The need for new discoveries in Materials Science has encouraged scientists from around the world to meet regularly and to discuss the latest advances and innovations.

This book contains more than 200 papers; all dealing with recent research findings related to engineering ceramics and associated materials. Particular emphasis is placed on the consideration of novel technical challenges and innovative technologies in advanced engineering ceramics: including new classes of high-temperature structural ceramics, nanomaterials/nanocomposites, environmental- and energy-related ceramics and so on, which are expected to open up new frontiers for engineering ceramics in the 21st century.

The aim of this book is to provide the reader with the latest advanced research results on, and an improved understanding of, various aspects of the processing and characterization of materials.

Advances in the welfare of humans tends to be directly related to advances in the science and technology of advanced materials. Hybrid materials make up just one such class of materials, and they are unique in the sense that they exhibit properties that cannot be achieved by using conventional materials design and - at the same time - cannot be predicted by using conventional extrapolations: such as a simple weighted average of the constituents’ properties.

This collection focuses solely on the topic of electrophoretic deposition (EPD) and its application as a processing technique for the fabrication of both traditional and new materials.

The process by which organisms in Nature create minerals is known as biomineralization - a process that involves complex interactions between inorganic ions, crystals and organic molecules; resulting in a controlled nucleation and growth of minerals from aqueous solutions. During the last few decades, biomineralization has been intensively studied, due to its involvement in a wide range of biological events; starting with the formation of bones, teeth, cartilage, shells, coral (so-called physiological mineralization) and encompassing pathological mineralization, i.e. the formation of kidney stones, dental calculi, osteoporosis, arteriosclerosis, osteogenesis imperfecta, etc. During the same period, biomineralization has become a hot topic for world-wide research throughout the world, due to the growing expectations of a good quality and duration of life by the ever-increasing population of the aged. Young people, in particular, also make increasing demands on the quality and the appearance of the existing implants available on the market. The general goals of research and manufacture are now to create and improve implants for various applications in the human body, as well as to prevent diseases leading to the formation of minerals such as hydroxyapatite (implicated, for example, in osteogenesis, kidney stones, dental calculi, arteriosclerosis – all problems which mainly affect women).

The Industrial Revolution showed that the development and improvement of new materials and functions could bring about social change, and benefit human society. However, one can be forgiven for feeling that more recent materials research, particularly in the domain of metals, has focused only upon individual elemental characteristics and narrow specialty fields, and that the original vision of materials research has thus been lost.

Composite materials have been at the center of research and development, in the materials community, for decades. The concept of combining metals, ceramics and polymers of various types, shapes and properties into a single composite material having properties that none of the constituents can themselves exhibit, has provided endless scope for human beings to invent. It has therefore stimulated numerous research and development efforts, and many applications. However, in spite of the advantages of composite materials, many underlying problems arising from the complexity of the systems have greatly hindered them from being the major players that they should be in our daily lives.  Needless to say, the challenges presented to the composite materials community have been the driving force for organizing composite materials conferences, including the Cross-Strait ones.