Today's rapidly advancing technology always demands materials with more stringent specifications for each new application. The industrial world asks for machines and electronic equipment with higher production rates, improved reliability, longer service life, higher precision, and resistance to more severe service conditions. Engineering ceramics are partly a result of this need and the developments in today's technology and industry. Scientists and manufacturers played a key role in the development of engineering ceramics in the past 50 years. Today, ceramics constitutes one of the most studied materials groups. Due to the very large number of publications in this domain, it takes a lot of skill to keep up with the development in ceramic materials, just as in any other field. Nevertheless, it is the responsibility of the student, technician, engineer, or scientist to be aware of major developments in their field. Books describing the state of art in the developing science and engineering fields are indispensable sources. Yet no book can be complete or final in that sense. This book gives a brief introduction to the structure of ceramic materials and then follows a flow similar to that which a ceramic product experiences during its lifetime. It starts with the raw material, continues with the processing and consolidation of these materials, and ends with the basic properties, characterization, and applications. I hope that it will serve its purposes and be of some help to those who search for answers.
