This book highlights recent findings in industrial, manufacturing and mechanical engineering, and provides an overview of the state of the art in these fields, mainly in Russia and Eastern Europe. A broad range of topics and issues in modern engineering are discussed, including the dynamics of machines and working processes, friction, wear and lubrication in machines, surface transport and technological machines, manufacturing engineering of industrial facilities, materials engineering, metallurgy, control systems and their industrial applications, industrial mechatronics, automation and robotics. The book gathers selected papers presented at the 4th International Conference on Industrial Engineering (ICIE), held in Moscow, Russia in May 2018. The authors are experts in various fields of engineering, and all papers have been carefully reviewed. Given its scope, the book will be of interest to a wide readership, including mechanical and production engineers, lecturers in engineering disciplines, and engineering graduates.

The International Thermal Conductivity Conference was started in 1961 with the initiative of Mr. Charles F. Lucks, who passed away on 8 July 1982 and to the memory of whom this volume is dedicated. These Conferences on thermal conductivity grew out of the needs of researchers in the field. The Conferences were held annu ally from 1961 to 1973 and have been held biennially since 1975 when our Center for Information and Numerical Data Analysis and Synthesis (CINDAS) of Purdue University became the Permanent Sponsor of the Conferences. These Conferences provide a broadly based forum for researchers actively working on the thermal conduc tivity and closely related properties to convene on a regular basis to exchange their ideas and experiences and report their findings and results. The Conferences have been self-perpetuating and are an example of how a technical community with a common purpose can transcend the invisible, artificial barriers between disciplines and gather together in increasing numbers without the need of national pub licity and continuing funding support, when they see something worthwhile going on. It is believed that this series of Conferences not only will grow stronger, but will set an example for research ers in other fields on how to jointly attack their own problem areas.

Once again, it gives me a great pleasure to pen the Foreword to the Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Thermal Conductivity. As in the past, these now biannual conferences pro vide a broadly based forum for those researchers actively working on this important property of matter to convene on a regular basis to exchange their experiences and report their findings. As it is apparent from the Table of Contents, the 15th Conference represents perhaps the broadest coverage of subject areas to date. This is indicative of the times as the boundaries between disciplines be come increasingly diffused. I am sure the time has come when Con ference Chairmen in coming years will be soliciting contributions not only in the physical sciences and engineering', but will actively seek contributions from the earth sciences and life sciences as well. Indeed, the thermal conductivity and related properties of geological and biological materials are becoming of increasing im portance to our way of life. As it can be seen from the summary table, unfortunately, proceedings have been published only for six of the fifteen con ferences. It is hoped that hereafter this Series will become increasingly well known and be recognized as a major vehicle for the reporting of research on thermal conductivity.