The continued positive response which the last edition of “Explosives”again received from our readers has encouraged the publishers andauthors to retain the concept on which it has been based up to now.Fortunately it was possible to obtain the services of Dr.-Ing. AxelHomburg to co-operate in this publication, and so this book now bearsthe names of three authors. Dr. Homburg was Chairman of the Management Board of the German Dynamit Nobel AG Company for manyyears and has been a member of the Supervisory Board since 1996.Unfortunately, the original creator of this book, Dr. Rudolf Meyer,passed away during its preparation. Dr. Rudolf Meyer was also responsible for reviving and extensively revising “Explosivstoffe” in theGerman language, this work having initially been published by the WASAG-Chemie Company, Berlin, in a first edition in 1932. It hassince become a standard work, already in its ninth edition.In comparison with the fourth edition, and in addition to a few new andcommercially attractive compounds of an explosive nature, particularimportance has been given to the keyword “Airbag” because of itsgreat topicality. At this point the authors would like to express specialthanks to Dr. E. Gast (Contec GmbH) for providing the correspondinginformation. The authors would like to thank the Fraunhofer Institut fürChemische Technologie (ICT), Pfinztal/Berghausen, in particular Dr.-Ing. P. Elsner, Dr. S. Kelzenberg, Dr. Th. Keicher, Mr. Bathelt, Dr. N.Eisenreich, Dr. K. Menke and Dr. Volk for their advice and contributionsto this book.Because production figures in the explosives industry have beendeclining markedly for a number of years, the tabulation of product andtrade names has been omitted for the time being.As a new addition, a CD with a tabulation of the current enthalpies offormation and free energies of formation of the compounds occurringin this publication is included with the book for the first time. Thistabulation is a compilation of data from the very comprehensive thermodynamic data base published and continually updated by theFraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT).The authors would like to thank all our patrons and specialist col-leagues who have helped to prepare this and previous editions of“Explosives”.445 pg. 2001