Shredded old tires can replace coke in the electric arc furnace, if some simple rules are followed to charge and use them. Experimental runs were carried out in two French steelshops for longer and longer periods of time and the substitution rate of carbon by tires was determined. Environmental measurements were also made in order to check emissions in the smokestack and inside the shop.

The present status of thin slab hot rolling (TSHR) technology is reviewed, with the emphasis on installations in operation or under construction in Asia. Core technologies required to manufacture steel products are EAF or BOF steelmaking, specific continuous casters, hot rolling practices preventing the formation of edge cracks or surface defects. TSHR can produce as well economical commercial products as high grade products. The main advantages of this route are presented and ways to overcome some of its limitations are suggested.

The dimensional range of the Bokaro Steel hot strip mill (India) has been increased through the application of optimized process models and advanced control systems. With limited investment costs, Bokaro Steel is now able to offer to its customers a significantly extended product range.

SmartCrown is a new technology developed by VAI for a more accurate control of profile and flatness during hot or cold rolling of steel and aluminium. In particular, SmartCrown allows to avoid to a great extent, or even completely, the frequently occurring defect called quarter buckles. The paper highlights the design features of the SmartCrown work rolls and compares the new technique with the well known CVC technology.

Surface treatments have long been considered as an art. With modelling they enter now the area of well controlled processes. Recent progress in this direction is reviewed in this paper: use of balances to define the working point of the reactors, modelling of the transition periods, numerical simulation for the dimensioning of the cells. New challenges and new working areas are discussed: performance prediction of production routes, coupling of models, prediction of product properties.

The results observed during ferritic rolling campaigns have highlighted a significant improvement of the behaviour of rolls. This improvement concerns the roll wear, the roughness and the roll surface evolution, as well as the friction coefficient, furthermore the strip surface quality. These results enabled us to validate that for ferritic rolling, the usage cost of HSS rolls is significantly lower than the one of high chromium rolls.

Using recent and more accurate data, the thermodynamic model of Ma and Janke has been extended to a five element system. The content of non-metallic inclusions has been investigated for two grades of duplex stainless steels after solidification. The chemical and morphological features of the inclusions were determined by SEM observations and EDS analysis for different cooling rates. The results are interpreted on the basis of the chemical-physical interactions in the Fe-Cr-Ni-Si-Mn-O system. They can be used to define the optimal oxygen potential pattern for the casting of this type of steel in foundries.

The surface quality of hot rolled low-carbon steels may be affected by their copper content when it exceeds 0.3% by weight. At high temperature (more than 1200 °C), a large part of the non oxidized copper is occluded into the primary scale and hot shortness phenomenon is prevented. At lower temperature (around 1000 °C), surface cracking may occur because Cu enrichment at the scale/steel interface cannot be avoided. Then the running risk depends on time and respective contents in Cu, Ni and Sn.

Samples of three different stainless steel types have been nitrocarburized under typical industrial conditions: an autenitic Cr-Ni-Mo steel, a 28% Cr-Ni-Mo super-ferritic steel and a duplex ferritic-austenitic steel. The obtained nitrocarburized layers were studied by optical, electron scanning microscopy, energy-dispersion analysis (EDS), glow discharge optical spectroscopy (GDOS), X-ray diffraction and hardness measurements. The properties of these layers are compared and the results are discussed.

A new filler material, a stabilized ferritic welding wire, has been developed for the joining of the stabilized ferritic stainless steel sheets increasingly used in automotive exhaust systems. The joints obtained in the GMAW and GTAW processes behave at least as well in service as those obtained with austenitic filler wires. The new welding grade can also be applied to produce heterogeneous assemblies.

First, it is demonstrated that the shape change accompanying bainite formation is accommodated by plastic deformation in austenite. Secondly, taking into account the corresponding plastic work, which increases due to carbon enrichment and transformation shear strain, as an entropy production mechanism, a new criterion, depending especially on initial chemical composition and grain size of austenite, is proposed for the stop of isothermal bainite before the expected equilibrium fraction expected from the phase diagram.