More and more sectors of the metalforming industry are beginning to recognise the benefits that finite-element analysis of metal-deformation processes can bring in reducing the lead time and development costs associated with the manufacture of new components. Finite-element analyses of non-linear problems, such as metal deformation, require powerful computing facilities and large amounts of computer running time but advances in computer technology and the falling price of hardware are bringing these techniques within the reach of even the most modest R & D department.

Finite-element programs specially designed for the analysis of metalforming processes (such as the program EPFEP3, which is used for the majority of examples in this monograph) are now commercially available. As a result, there is an urgent need for a text that explains the principles underlying finite-element metalforming analysis to the people who are starting to use these techniques industrially, and to those undertaking the undergraduate and postgraduate engineering courses in the subject that industry is beginning to demand. One of the aims of this monograph is to fulfil that need.

The first chapters provide an introduction to the application of finite-element analysis to metalforming problems, starting from the basic ideas of the finite-element method, and developing these ideas firstly to the study of linear elastic deformation and then to the examination of non-linear elastic–plastic processes involving small amounts of deformation. No previous knowledge of finite elements is required, although the reader is assumed to be familiar with the use of matrices.