This special issue of the International Journal of Forming Processes contains selected papers presented at the Fourth International Conference on Materials Processing Defects, held in Cachan, France, during 24-26 September 2002. As the previous conferences held in 1987, 1992 and 1997, this Conference focussed advanced methods for predicting and avoiding the occurrence of defects in manufactured products. The following topics have been considered: microstructural evolutions during processing, induced properties in some materials, damage modelling and fracture criteria, instability analysis, characterisation of formability, specific methods for the prediction of defects, influence of defects on the integrity of structures, new numerical techniques.
Major manufacturing operations are covered, conventional and new materials are considered: metal alloys, ceramics, composites and polymers.
We would like to thank the authors for their efforts and co-operation in making this conference successful.