My coauthor Robert Caddell died in 1990. I have greatly missed interacting with him.

The biggest changes from the second edition are an enlargement and reorganization of the last third of the book, which deals with sheet metal forming. Changes have been made to the chapters on bending, plastic anisotropy, and cup drawing. An entire chapter has been devoted to forming limit diagrams. There is one chapter on various aspects of stampings, including the use of tailor-welded blanks, and another on other sheet-forming operations, including hydroforming of tubes. Sheet testing is covered in a separate chapter. The chapter on sheet metal properties has been expanded to include newer materials and more depth on aluminum alloys.

In addition, some changes have been made to the chapter on strain-rate sensitivity. A treatment of friction and lubrication has been added. A short treatment of swaging has been added. End-of-chapter notes have been added for interest and additional end-of-chapter references have been added.

No attempt has been made in this book to introduce numerical methods such as finite element analyses. The book Metal Forming Analysis by R. H. Wagoner and J. L. Chenot (Cambridge University Press, 2001) covers the latest numerical techniques. We feel that one should have a thorough understanding of a process before attempting numerical techniques. It is vital to understand what constitutive relations are imbedded in a program before using it. For example, the use of Hill's 1948 anisotropic yield criterion can lead to significant errors.