Preface

The multiple facets of modern sheet metal manufacturing techniques are applied throughout a wide spectrum of economy, ranging from the automotive industry and machine manufacturing to electrical engineering and electronics. This wide range of applications means that sheet metal manufacturers produce parts from a few grams up to 1000 kg and more — from electro-technical parts up to components in automotive industry — as well as batch sizes ranging from just a few pieces to mass production. Worldwide, around 12,300 companies employing 600,000 workers produce sheet metal goods worth over 732 billion US dollars. These are impressive numbers for sheet metal manufacturing, to which forming processes are central, but also for cutting and joining technologies with their increasing importance. All of these processes have developed dynamically in the recent past, and this trend will no doubt continue