This article tells in the form of a tribute to chairman René Damien, the founder of Usinor, the story of the French wide strip mills. The situation of the French steel industry in the 1950s is first recalled. The important decisions made to modernize this industry are then presented and the major milestones of the construction and operation of the hot strip mills of Denain, Serémange, Dunkirk and Fos are indicated.

Strip casting technology has many advantages, both technical and economical. In the Eurostrip project, this technology is applied to stainless steel at Krefeld (KTN) and to carbon steel at Terni (AST). The latest achievements of this technology are presented in this paper. Positive results are reported with respect to casting width, in-line hot rolling, in combination with in-line inductive heating. The technology is ready for industrial application.

Application of advanced edging equipment in combination with sophisticated automation and control systems is necessary for improving the width accuracy of hot-rolled strip. This paper reviews the existing edger equipment and introduces an important contribution of VAI to this problem : a non-linear automatic width control system (AWC) based on the use of short-stroke cylinders.

A fast-computing model for crown and flatness in hot strip rolling and plate rolling has been developed based on steady-state elastic-plastic finite element simulations and an elastic buckling analysis. A single, geometry-independent tuning coefficient needs to be identified for each steel grade family. As a result, the model can be efficiently tuned to production mills. Implementation into the set-up environment “CID” of the SOLLAC Méditerranée hot strip mill is presented.

EKO Stahl has successfully installed a Parsytec HTS3 surface inspection system in the hot strip mill. The main reason for the installation of this system was the growing demand for the immediate detection of surface defects. Using the system it was possible to significantly reduce the downgrading in the cold rolling mill because of surface defects. The benefits of the system are the improved possibilities to investigate the reasons for surface defects and the early re-routing of non conforming products. As an example, the procedure used to investigate the emergence of edge shells is presented.

The revamping of pickling line No. 1 at Ferblatil, with an increase of its width, was completed at the beginning of 2001. The width increase provides new possibilities for the supply of metal to all finishing lines of the basin of Liège. The start up conditions of the revamped line and the first operational results are presented.

The new tandem mill of TKS was built as a five stand all six high mill and coupled with the pickling line in 2001. TAKO is equipped with a new generation of electrical control system. It guarantees best accuracy for product quality and tolerances right up to the edge of the strip.

Flexible production of a continuous range of profiles and sections using the same set of tool rolls is now possible with the world-unique FCF system. Developed by VAI, this technology was installed for the first time ever at voestalpine Krems, Austria. This paper presents the main design features of FCF technology in addition to production results and benefits.

Report on an ECSC Steel workshop, organized on February 27 and 28, 2002, in Luxembourg. Information on work in progress or recently completed in the field of galvanizing and coating of steel strip. Some 16 research projects funded by the ECSC steel RTD programme are reviewed.