The aim of this book on basic corrosion technology for scientists and engineers is to give a survey of the corrosion of metals, its damage to the community and possible countermeasures. Efforts have been made to write a book easy to read, even for persons without deep knowledge of chemistry.

The book is based on my experience from 15 years as corrosion metallurgist in Swedish industry and from 17 years as director of research or leader of the Swedish Corrosion Institute.

When writing the book I have had the privilege of discussion with many co-workers, in particular with: Jaak Berendson, Gunnar Bergman, Goran Camitz, Kaija Eistrat, Goran Engstrom, Mats Foghelin, Jan Gullman, Sven Hedman, Rolf Holm, Torsten Johnsson, Lage Knutsson, Vladimir Kucera, Christofer Leygraf, Mats Linder, Bo Mannerskog, Sune Strom, Bengt Sundvall, and Gosta Svendenius. Ove Nygren has taken the majority of the photographs and Bengt Sundvall has made the drawings. The translation into English has been made by Brian Hayes. These valuable contributions are gratefully acknowledged.

I also wish to thank warmly my friend Tony Mercer, who has checked the manuscript from linguistic point of view and also suggested many technical improvements.

Finally, I hope that this book will be of interest and value to the readers and
effectively help to combat corrosion.

Edited by: Einar Mattsson