In the metallurgical industry, very few innovative processes reached the industrial stage. The purpose of this article is to identify the key principles for monitoring an industrialization process, and to assess their validity. Mastering the industrialization process is a key to hopefully succeed in developing efficiently an innovative and competitive process; according to industry characteristics and past cases of process developments, there might be a “virtuous” six-step industrialization process for metallurgy; the review of present industrialization processes within two metallurgical routes tends to confirm that point.

The 24th International Steelmaking Days of ATS (Association Technique de la Sidérurgie) took place on the 10th and 11th of December 2003 in Paris. More than 650 experts coming from 24 countries all over the world attended the congress. For flat products, 27 reports were presented and discussed concerning hot rolling, cold rolling and surface coating. The reports show that progress in hot and cold rolling technology requires close cooperation between production, research and development, as well as with the revamping team and the plant supplier. Highlights of the papers are measures for increasing the availability of the plant, optimization of yield and quality, cost-effective production and sustainability.

Carmakers face ever more frequently the phenomenon of spring-back after stamping, especially with new high strength steels (HSS and VHSS). Renault and Arcelor have been working together for many years on the formability and spring-back of VHSS. Recently, they aimed at establishing a method to optimize die shape in order to compensate for the spring-back after stamping. A method, named “Outifo” has been developed in order to obtain by simulation, from the initial CADs of the part and its referential stamped die, a CAD of a die with a modified shape. This allows the real stamping part, after forming and spring-back, to recover as closely as possible the geometry of the theoretical part defined by the designer.

The paper deals with the design of stainless steel exhaust manifolds, focusing on the development of high temperature ferritic grades and their forming capabilities related to the new forming processes, like bending and hydroforming. In particular, it is shown along the presentation, how a niobium stabilized 14%Cr grade can be used in replacement of austenitic grades in many situations of complex shaped manifolds thanks to its combined improved formability and its high temperature resistance up to 950°C. Finally, the authors present a “virtual” thermomechanical fatigue design approach, using a dedicated post processor, which would permit to optimize the design of the fabricated exhaust manifolds, and would lower the development cost and time by limiting both the number of prototype and motor bench tests and, finally, would reduce the risk of failure.