Hard materials and in particular transition metal carbides, borides, nitrides and their composites are indispensable for a variety of industrial cutting, forming, mining, oil-well drilling, wear and erosion applications that have a direct impact on the growing need to increase human productivity, decrease energy and materials waste and increase the availability of energy resources. Some key materials (e.g. W and Co) that are widely used at present in hard metals are strategic in nature and therefore alternatives have to be found. This development cannot proceed without basic research and appropriate guidelines.

Basic knowledge of how the overall performance of hard material composite is influenced by the fundamental physical, chemical and mechanical properties of its constituents and structure property relationships of general validity have been slow to emerge. Concepts regarding the structure and properties of phase boundaries, grain boundaries and other interfaces; plastic flow and work hardening in geometrically constrained regions and newer analytical tools and techniques such as Auger spectroscopy, neutron diffraction, electron energy-loss spectroscopy and finite-element methods have found only limited application in the area of hard material technology. Hard material technology can be significantly enhanced through increased and enlightened application of these concepts and techniques.

This international conference on hard materials was a natural outgrowth of the series of seven Hard Materials Workshops sponsored by the Division of Materials Research of the National Science Foundation. At the last of these, in 1979 at the University of Illinois, it was agreed to expand the attendance to include overseas colleagues and to include many more papers. This decision reflected the general belief that these workshops had fulfilled their purpose of interesting academic investigators in the area of hard materials research and of putting industrial research groups in touch with university counterparts.

Based on the efforts of a handful of people (both from academia and industry), a grant from the National Science Foundation, and seed money from Reed Rock Bit and GTE Precision Materials an organizing committee started the process of planning the “First International Conference on the Science of Hard Materials”. The conference was a roaring success and the attendees unanimously requested a permanent continuance of such meetings. The rest as they say is history.

Conferences have been held every three or four years so as to allow sufficient time to maintain the presentation and discussion of a high level of new and innovative research and development. This has been and will continue to be the trademark of these conferences. The first seven converences were held at:

ICSHM 1 Moran, Wyoming, USA; August, 1981
ICSHM 2 Rhodes, Greece; September, 1984
ICSHM 3 Nassau, Bahamas; November, 1987
ICSHM 4 Madeira, Portugal; November, 1991
ICSHM 5 Maui, Hawaii, USA; February, 1995
ICSHM 6 Lanzarote, Spain; March, 1998
ICSHM 7 Ixtapa, Mexico; March, 2001
ICSHM 8 San Juan, Puerto Rico; November, 2004
ICSHM 9 Montego Bay, Jamaica; March 2008

Proceeding Publications in Journals:

ICSHM 3 Material Science and Engineering, A105/106 (1988), Elsevier Sequoia, Ed. V. K. Sarin.
ICSHM 4 Journal of Hard Materials, Vol. 2, Nos 1-4 (1991) and Vol.3, Nos. 1-4 (1992), Carfax Publishing Co., Ed. C.A. Brooks and R. Warren.
ICSHM 5 Material Science and Engineering, A 209, Nos 1-2 (1996), Elsevier Science, Ed. V. K. Sarin.
ICSHM 6 Int. Journal of Refractory Metals & Hard Materials, Vol. 17, Nos 1-3 (1999), Elsevier, Ed. H. G. Sockel, H. E. Hintermann, and V. K. Sarin.
ICSHM 7 Int. Journal of Refractory Metals & Hard Materials, Vol. 19, Nos 4-6 (2001), Elsevier, Ed. L. Llanes, I. C. Grigorescu, and V. K. Sarin.
ICSHM 8 Int. Journal of Refractory Metals & Hard Materials, Vol. 23, Nos 4-6 (2005), Elsevier, Ed. L. Llanes, I. C. Grigorescu, and V. K. Sarin.
ICSHM 8 Int. Journal of Refractory Metals & Hard Materials, Vol. 24, Nos 1-2 (2006), Elsevier, Ed. L. Llanes, D. Mari, and V. K. Sarin.