The pressure to revise the 1989 first edition was not major change in the science, but the globalization of the economy and resulting lust for cost reduction through new and optimized processes, an expanding knowledge of ecological requirements such as energy saving, and new production and development principles such as quality assurance and responsible care. The three researchers at a German pharmaceutical company expand the sections on the products of silicon chemistry, silanes, heavy-duty ceramics, photovoltaics, the nuclear fuel cycle, and new composite materials such as nano-materials. The translation is by David R. Terrell.