As the utilization of ceramic materials is developing at a great pace, so too is the science of ceramics improving the understanding we have about these high-technology materials. New and improved ways of examining and investigating monolithic ceramics and ceramic composites are also being developed and reported at a great pace in a wide-ranging area of the scientific and technical literature. This book has been written with the aim of increas ing the awareness of the general materials worker of developments in modern ceramics and of bringing to a focus how much the study of their hardness can contribute to our understanding of them and lead to technical data that can be of considerable use in this fast-growing field. The readership will consist of materials scientists, metallurgists, and engineers moving into the new worlds of advanced ceramics and ceramic-containing composites. Detailed works on hardness are to be found in the metallurgical area, where much of the theory and early applications were developed. This book does not overly stress this early development of theory and practice, but concentrates wherever possible on the ceramics and glasses. Thus Chapter 1 introduces the general subject area to those whose interest may have been blunted in the past by the emphasis on one area of materials. Subjects raised in the first chapter are developed more fully in later chapters."

Ceramics always was a broad field and now as the Like my predecessor I have provided only defini boundaries continue to expand it is one of the truly tions. No effort has been made to include pronuncia interdisciplinary areas. This publication, in its re tion, derivations, or syllabication of entries. A large vised form, must reflect this. The trend is toward number of acronyms and abbreviations have been more utilization of ceramics as integrated materials included. The text is in fact somewhat hybrid because together with polymers, metals, and other ceramics, many of the entries appear similar to those in an for both structural and electronic applications. Thus, encyclopedia while struggling to remain concise. new fabrication technology is providing the new Reemphasizing the interdisciplinary nature of mod vocabulary of this growth; areas like thin-film proc em ceramics, and the varied backgrounds of those essing, sol-gel techniques, as used by the electronics who are interested in or work in the industry, striking industry; fiber forming, weaving, and ultrahigh vac a balance between the many allied disciplines con uum and temperature methods must be included in a tributing to ceramics and the hope of being compre glossary of vocabulary purporting to deal with ce hensive but yet concise has been a difficult task. I ramics and their science."

Ceramics always was a broad field and now as the Like my predecessor I have provided only defini boundaries continue to expand it is one of the truly tions. No effort has been made to include pronuncia interdisciplinary areas. This publication, in its re tion, derivations, or syllabication of entries. A large vised form, must reflect this. The trend is toward number of acronyms and abbreviations have been more utilization of ceramics as integrated materials included. The text is in fact somewhat hybrid because together with polymers, metals, and other ceramics, many of the entries appear similar to those in an for both structural and electronic applications. Thus, encyclopedia while struggling to remain concise. new fabrication technology is providing the new Reemphasizing the interdisciplinary nature of mod vocabulary of this growth; areas like thin-film proc em ceramics, and the varied backgrounds of those essing, sol-gel techniques, as used by the electronics who are interested in or work in the industry, striking industry; fiber forming, weaving, and ultrahigh vac a balance between the many allied disciplines con uum and temperature methods must be included in a tributing to ceramics and the hope of being compre glossary of vocabulary purporting to deal with ce hensive but yet concise has been a difficult task. I ramics and their science."

As the utilization of ceramic materials is developing at a great pace, so too is the science of ceramics improving the understanding we have about these high-technology materials. New and improved ways of examining and investigating monolithic ceramics and ceramic composites are also being developed and reported at a great pace in a wide-ranging area of the scientific and technical literature. This book has been written with the aim of increas ing the awareness of the general materials worker of developments in modern ceramics and of bringing to a focus how much the study of their hardness can contribute to our understanding of them and lead to technical data that can be of considerable use in this fast-growing field. The readership will consist of materials scientists, metallurgists, and engineers moving into the new worlds of advanced ceramics and ceramic-containing composites. Detailed works on hardness are to be found in the metallurgical area, where much of the theory and early applications were developed. This book does not overly stress this early development of theory and practice, but concentrates wherever possible on the ceramics and glasses. Thus Chapter 1 introduces the general subject area to those whose interest may have been blunted in the past by the emphasis on one area of materials. Subjects raised in the first chapter are developed more fully in later chapters."