Book excerpt: Presenting time-tested standard as well as reliable emerging knowledge on threaded fasteners and joints, this book covers how to select parts and materials, predict behavior, control assembly processes, and solve on-the-job problems. It examines key issues affecting bolting in the automotive, pressure vessel, petrochemical, aerospace, and structural steel industries. The editors have successfully created a useful rather than scholarly handbook with chapters written in a straightforward, how-to-do-it manner. Theory is discussed only when necessary and the handbook's logical organization and thorough index enhances its usefulness.