Nanostructured steel industrialisation: Plausible reality

Abstract

It is not the first time that a consortium of steel makers, end users and scientists end up with unique approaches and developments in the physical metallurgy of steels. The present paper reveals the scientific and technological developments of a consortium sharing a common intrigue and interest for a unique microstructure, nanostructured bainite. Also known as low temperature bainite, its unique properties rely solely on the scale of the miscrostructure obtained by heat treatment at low temperature (150–350°C). Careful design based on phase transformation theory, some well known metallurgy facts and the necessary industrial experience were the ingredients for a further step towards the industrialisation of these microstructures.