Foreword

Publication of Volume 22B, Metals Process Simulation, completes an ambitious undertaking begun in 2007 to compile an all-new, comprehensive reference resource on modeling as it applies to metals processing. The first part, Volume 22A, Fundamentals of Modeling for Metals Processing, was published in 2009.

Many of the sections in this Volume will be familiar to ASM Handbook users, as they have been covered extensively across the ASM Handbook series: phase diagrams, casting and solidification, forming, machining, powder metallurgy, joining, heat treatment, and design. This Volume interprets these subjects in the interdisciplinary context of modeling, simulation, and computational engineering.

The high cost of capital investment in manufacturing can be mitigated by modeling and simulating the options. The effects of processing on materials can be tested and understood through modeling. This Volume and its companion, Volume 22A, provide materials engineers and scientists with the information they need to understand the potential and advantages of modeling and simulation and to provide them with the tools they need to work with the modeling experts.

When the first ASM Handbook was published in 1923 by ASM International's predecessor, the American Society for Steel Treaters, the computational tools of choice were a slide rule, paper, pencil, and data tables—all conveniently sized to slip into a lab coat pocket. Today, computational tools are almost entirely software based, although some handheld electronics are also conveniently sized to slip into a lab coat pocket. Many of the basic concerns between then and now are the same: how to control properties during processing, how to minimize waste, how to maintain quality, and so on. Additional contemporary concerns include automated manufacturing, new alloys, new applications such as aerospace and medical devices, environmental responsibility, tracking, and so on.

ASM International is indebted to co-editors David Furrer and S. Lee Semiatin for their vision and leadership in bringing Volumes 22A and 22B to completion. The many authors and reviewers who worked on these Volumes shared that vision. Unlike the subjects about which they wrote, a technical article cannot be modeled or simulated; it must take tangible form as text and images, and this Volume is the direct result of the contributors' generosity in sharing their time and expertise.

That first ASM Handbook was published as a loose-leaf collection of data sheets assembled in a leather-bound binder. Today's ASM Handbooks are available online, in hardcover, or as DVDs. Times have changed, and ASM International continues to provide the quality information that materials science professionals need to chart the course of the future for their industries.