New composite materials and semi-fabricates, as disparate in their nature as solid multilaminates and powder compacts, have been steadily increasing in importance. Their application to a variety of industrial situations is being made easier by the considerable development of conventional manufacturing techniques which fulfil many of the requirements imposed on such materials. At the same time, however, the degree of their exploitation can be limited by, either the inadequate final product properties, or simply - as in the case of particulate matter - by the inability of these techniques to...

Although the problem of tool design - involving both the selection of suitable geometry and material- has exercised the attention of metal- forming engineers for as long as this industrial activity has existed, the approach to its solution has been generally that of the 'trial and error' variety. It is only relatively recently that the continuing expansion of the bulk metal-forming industry, combined with an increase in the degree of sophistication required of its products and processes, has focussed attention on the problem of optimisation of tool design. This, in turn, produced a...