Preface to powder science and technology and sintered materials STPMF 2009 This special issue of Powder Technology presents a selection of papers from the symposium STPMF 2009, "Science et Technologie des Poudres et Matériaux Frittés" (Science and Technology of Powders and Sintered Materials), which was held in Montpellier (France) from 27 to 25 May 2009. This symposium was organized by the "Groupe Science et Technologie des Poudres" (Group of Powder Science and Technology), the "Commission Poudres et Matériaux Frittés", PMF (Powders and Sintered Materials Committee), the "Societé Française de Métallurgie et de Matériaux", SF2M (French Society for Metallurgy and Materials), the "Groupe Français de la Céramique", GFC (French Ceramic Group) and the "Réseau Français de la Mécanosynthèse", RFM (French Mechanosynthesis Network).
Powders, granular media, nanomaterials, and sintered materials constitute a cross-disciplinary topic covering a large range of scientific and technological fields and of industrial sectors (food, chemistry, cement, ceramics and metallurgy). The symposium STPMF 2009 made it possible for the 220 delegates belonging to both academic and industrial communities in France and beyond to have an overview of recent advances concerning Powder and Sintered Materials: powder, suspension and paste characterization; physics of granular media; reactivity and bioavailability of powder; impact of powder on health and environment; powder processing (synthesis, handling, sintering…); nano-powders and nano-structured materials, non-conventional powders and sintering processes (micro-wave, SPS…); and modeling.
We hope that this selection of papers provides a good illustration of the wide extent and of the high level of academic and industrial interest in powder and sintered materials technology in France.
We would like to thank all the participants and the invited speakers (N. Abatzoglou, E. Gaffet, Y. Monnerie, M. Perrut and E. Guyon) who greatly contribute to the success of the symposium.
We also express our gratitude to the scientific and organization committee members for their work before, during and after the symposium and we warmly thank the Editorial Board of Powder Technology for the publication of this special issue.