Customer driven steel development: the future for structure-property relationships

Steels have traditionally been supplied to standards and specifications whi ch embody the collective wisdom of steel manufacturers and their customers. For many users the information contained within existing steel standards f inds wide application and satisfies completely the intended use. In other c ases, due to the historical nature of steel standards, as steelmaking or pr ocessing advances are made then the performance of the steel in use may dif fer from that on which the standard was first derived. Increasingly, howeve r, the customer wishes to tailor the material specification either to suit a niche market or to give an advantage in production costs. Some of these d esires are matched by the closer compositional control made possible by lad le steelmaking or greater consistency of rolling schedules. The extent to w hich steel development and specifications are increasingly driven by custom ers are considered, but also the part played by the steelmaker in satisfyin g end user requirements. Examples are drawn from customer welding specifica tions, which are increasing tied to improvements in productivity. The impac t of customer requirements in further optimisation of mechanical behaviour or heat treatment response is also illustrated. (C) 2001 loM Communications Ltd.