This volume has been prepared as a reference guide for all engineering, industrial and technical management personnel who are in any way involved in the manufacturing process, in product design, or in converting of raw materials to finished products. This Encyclopedic Dictionary covers a wide range of subjects from industrial materials, minerals, metals, plastics and synthetic fibers to machine tools, computers, lasers, robots and other production equipment as well as manufacturing processes. Some of the materials reviewed are brass, steel, nickel, copper, bronze, cast iron, cements, clay, coal, coke, petroleum and petrochemicals, glass, limestone, rubber, paper, metal alloys, chemicals, synthetic fibers, textiles, plastics, resins, lubricants, and thermoplastics. Various processes are reviewed such as metal casting, forming, machining, anneal ing, extrusion, heat treating, injection molding, papermaking and steel processing. In heat treating such areas as martempering, annealing, spheroidizing, tempering and austempering are included. Different types of equipment related to the products are defined. In plastics such pro ducts are covered as nylons, polyesters, rayons, Teflon, Vinyon, Saran, acetates and acrylics. Many of the manufacturing processes and equipment involved in the conversion of material to finished products are described along with products and their ultimate uses. Also, important associated manufacturing activities such as inspection, handling, and control are included to make the references as complete as is practicable."

Increased public concern over the control of environmental forces and industrial hazards has led to awareness for the need for improved conditions for all who work. Industry has expanded and developed new p' ducts and new methods. A great many occupational diseases have accompanied this progress. Too much of the present data and knowledge have been obtained following accidents or sad experience. Thousands of women have died, have become acutely or chronically ill, and still others permanently disabled. Workers themselves have become keenly aware of potential hazards on their jobs, and public interest has developed to a point where articles are appearing on front pages of newspapers, business journals, and medical journals specifically related to occupational medicine. Special studies of chemicals, processes, and practices have been initiated by government agencies and by industry itself. Knowledge of increased liver cancer in vinyl chloride workers, the discovery of kepone, a pesticide produced under poor working conditions causing neurologic damage, the problems with asbestos, and the alarming occupational health problems reported among workers manufacturing "DBCP" (dibromochloropropane), a nematocid that has caused reproductive alterations in men from oligospermia to sterility, are well known. Not only have sterility and fertility become serious grounds for concern but also mutagenesis and teratogenesis, in addition to public anxieties about occupational carcinogens, a cause for worry.