This special issue is edited with selected papers presented in the 2nd International Conference on Recent Trends in Metallurgy, Materials Science and Manufacturing (IMME19), which is 2nd in its edition of biennial series organized by the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India.

Based on ‘Make in India’ initiative by the Government of India, the series of IMME conferences focus on recent developments in the areas like Metallurgy, Materials Science and Manufacturing both in India and abroad.

For the IMME19 conference, out of more than 400 papers received, 230 papers were selected for both oral and poster presentations in total 23 technical sessions. The major sessions were on extractive metallurgy, heat treatment, metal joining, metal casting, composite materials, surface engineering, metal forming, high entropy alloys, additive manufacturing, modelling, and simulation, etc. In every session, the best paper was selected based on the content and presentation, and awarded as “Best Technical Paper”.

This event was funded by Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). This financial support enabled the successful conduct of the event.

Keynote and Invited lectures were delivered by 10 eminent researchers from various countries like the UK, Russia, South Korea, Norway, Singapore, Brazil, Estonia, along with 10 Indian eminent researchers. Their lectures covered recent technological developments in metallurgical processes, materials science, and manufacturing especially enlightening on solidification, niche industrial surface treatment methods, super TIG as a novel fabrication technique, and current scenario in standardisation process of additive manufacturing.

This technical event provided a forum to a good number of scholars both from India and abroad in enriching their knowledge and exchanging their research ideas in the areas of Metallurgy and Manufacturing Engineering. We, as compiling Editors, strongly believe that this special issue can be a very good scholastic information source for both academicians and practicing engineers across the globe.

We sincerely thank the authors of the contributed technical papers, the reviewers who have helped in improving the quality and technical content of these papers, and the publishing team. Our sincere and very special thanks are due to Prof. B. S. Murty, Editor-in-Chief, Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals for his support and continuous encouragement and for giving this opportunity in editing this special issue. We also thank Dr. R. Sandhya and Dr. Arup Dasgupta, Managing Editors for their untired and constant support. Our special appreciations are due to the production team of Springer for their dedicated efforts in bringing out this issue.