The plastic forming of metals is a branch of technology, in which great progress has been achieved mainly by collecting practical data resulting from long-time experience. The contribution of theoretical analysis to this progress is not significant. The common argument was, that such an analysis is too difficult and often even impossible. However, the constantly increasing significance of coldwork processing in industrial practice and the progress in the automatic control of these processes, demanding a broad knowledge of the influence of various parameters, and also the need to improve the...

The theory of plasticity has a broad range of applications in industry and engineering. Its methods permit to devise metal processing, allow to assess safety of structures against collapse, make possible to estimate flow of bulk solids. The technological progress calls both for deeper understanding of sources of plastic deformation and for more rigorous description of mecha nisms of plastic motion. It was felt at the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research in Warsaw several years ago that an international meeting bringing together experts in various domains of plasticity and studying...