The last edition of the Handbook was published in 1994 and like all the earlier editions, it aimed to provide a practical reference book for all those involved in making castings in any of the commonly used alloys by any of the usual moulding methods. In order to keep the Handbook to a reasonable size, it was not possible to deal with all the common casting alloys in detail. Since 1994 the technology of casting has continued to develop and has become more specialised so that it has been decided to publish the 11th edition of the Handbook in three.