Metal Science in Modern Manufacturing Technologies

Foreword The main goal of this work is to highlight the relations of material composition and processing technologies on the resulting microstructure and product performance. This cross-correlation is widely cited in the literature and in the web, but it appears that a deep knowledge which considers all the involved scientific aspects is still lacking in the background of material specialists working in many industrial fields and of academic scholars. (Fig. 1). The book targets professionals and researchers who already possess a sound back-ground about the principles of physical metallurgy, including crystal structure, phase diagrams, diffusion phenomena, mechanical properties of metals and alloys. It is believed that an improved theoretical knowledge about the physical laws ruling metal fabrication, microstructure development, and achievable properties of products would help solving many technical concerns of industrial experts and ease the understanding of material selection and property definition for the final applica-tions. With this aim, the approach adopted for this book is such that the reader will mainly find information about the phenomena affecting metals and alloys during their manufacturing route and on how to govern them to improve the workability and tune the final properties of parts. The perspective is therefore on the material side, while concepts about the metalworking technologies will be provided only as case studies to support the understanding of the former view. To close this brief introduction, as a scholar working on fundamental and applied research for the development of metal alloys and of their processing routes, I always had in my office a cartoon, which I found in a journal at the times of my Ph.D., many years ago. Originally, I framed and kept the above image since it was funny, but along these decades it has been instructive in continuously recalling the impor-tance of acquiring a clear practical experience on the processing steps of materials, that absolutely needs to be paired with a sound knowledge about the fundamental phenomena governed by physical metallurgy principles. As for many other facts of life, the truth lies in the middle. I am convinced that a sound synergy between “experience and Ph.D.” can make the difference. Milano (Italy), July 2025 Maurizio Vedani