This edition, to be published December 2013, outlines the progress made during the last 25 years in the scientific and technical know-how required for production of high-quality flat products.

The Flat Products Volume is a compilation of international knowledge in four major areas:

• Properties, metallurgical design and applications of flat products.
• Rolling theory and metallurgical aspects of the flat rolling process.
• Designs and performance characteristics of various plants producing flat products and descriptions of the plants' principal components.
• Automation and process control equipment providing desired characteristics of geometrical, mechanical and metallurgical parameters of produced flat products.

Dr. Vladimir B. Ginzburg, editor of the Flat Products Volume, began his career in the steel industry in 1975 as a staff engineer of the Research and Development Department at Wean United Inc., and became involved in the start-up of both hot and cold rolling mills. In 1984, Dr. Ginzburg formed his own company, International Rolling Mill Consultants Inc., where he acted as a consultant. He supervised a group of mathematicians and computer software engineers and developed several computer models for simulations of flat rolling process. He obtained more than 60 U.S. and foreign patents related to steel rolling and casting technologies and, in 2000, he received the Tadeusz Sendzimir Memorial Medal, the highest technical award issued by AIST.

The first edition of the Making, Shaping and Treating of Steel (MSTS) series was distributed in 1919 and was studied by salesmen and other non-technical employees of the Carnegie Steel Co. Various departments of the United States Steel Corporation made significant contributions to the sixth edition, published in 1951. The Association for Iron and Steel Engineers (AISE) assisted the United States Steel Corporation with the four subsequent editions and ultimately assumed responsibility for the future MSTS volumes. After a merger between AISE and the Iron & Steel Society (ISS) in January 2004, the Association for Iron & Steel Technology was given the rights to the MSTS publications.

The 11th edition of the Making, Shaping and Treating of Steel was divided into five volumes to compensate for the enormous influx of new technology since the publication of the 10th edition in 1985:

• Ironmaking Volume (published in 1999).
• Steelmaking and Refining Volume (published in 1998).
• Casting Volume (published in 2003).
• Flat Products Volume (published in 2013).
• Long Products Volume (to be published 2014).

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AIST is a non-profit technical association of 16,000 members from 70 countries, with the mission to advance the technical development, production, processing and application of iron and steel. The organization is recognized as a global leader in networking, education and sustainability programs for advancing iron and steel technology.