Preface

Abstract

We would like to introduce you to the Proceedings of International conference PING 2019 – Modern trends in material engineering, which took place at 10. - 13. 9. 2019 in Pilsen, Czech Republic.It was already the fourth year of the conference, which started as a workshop of the Regional Technological Institute (RTI) (www.rti.zcu.cz) of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, and which was originally intended to present research programs and results of individual laboratories of the Institute. The research program of Research and development of forming technologies organized this conference for the first time in 2018. Research and development of forming technologies have a long tradition not only within RTI but also at the University of West Bohemia and it includes forming of materials, characterisation of the resulting microstructures by various microscopic methods and mechanical testing. PING 2018 was still organized as a local event with guests invited from other universities and industrial companies. Due to the positive feedback of this event, the fourth year was organized in 2019 with similar topics, only with international attendance this time.The scope of the topics reflected the research interests of the laboratories of RTI, including metal forming, heat and thermo-mechanical treatment, nonferrous metals, mechanical testing, microscopic analysis. The sessions concentrating on modern high strength steels of various generations developed mainly for the automotive industry constituted a very important part of the conference. Dynamically developing field of additive technologies, which has a high potential for future applications, was also frequently presented.In total, 64 contributions were chosen for presentation at PING 2019, 41 of them in the form of oral presentations and 23 as e-posters. 33 articles were selected after peer review for publication within this Proceedings. These articles cover all important topics presented at the conference and proved an overview of development in the field of modern high strength steels, 3D printing and also nanotechnologies and nanomaterials.The committee of PING 2019 paid great attention to reviewing of all the papers submitted to the conference and organizing the sessions to enable the participants to enjoy the scientific as well as the social side of the event. We sincerely appreciate your participation and do believe our joint efforts made this conference indeed successful.At the very end, we would like to invite you to the fifth year of this conference, which will take place from 7. to 10. 9. 2021.Organizing committee of PING 2019