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The growing interest in nanomaterials over the past decade or so can be put down to their unique structure, characterised by grains with nanometric dimensions and by a rather high density of crystal defects, which will undoubtedly lead to quite exceptional properties. In particular, extrapolating the constitutive laws of large-grained materials down to the nanoscale leads one to expect interesting mechanical behaviour for nanomaterials. Materials can be produced with high levels of hardness, ductility, and sometimes superplasticity (see Chap. 9) at relatively low temperatures. These characteristics lead to remarkable mechanical performance and machining possibilities, by virtue of which such nanomaterials have immediate scope for technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]