It is necessary for a machine casting products of medium thickness to cast at a speed as high as possible for productivity. But, longitudinal surface cracks and fluctuation of molten steel level increase as the casting speed increases. The peritectic steel grade is most sensitive to such defects and phenomena. Thanks to various technological developments, the peritectic steel grade could be cast at a casting speed of 5.0 m/min, which is the highest used ever.

This new process of die necking for beverage cans consists in exploiting advantageously two properties of metal: the thickening during the shrinking and principally the decrease of the flow stress during the process, improving the metal formability. The increasing die necking process rates harmonize the diameter reduction of the consecutive stages with the aptitude of the can wall to be shrunk. This new kind of necking route with increasing rates makes possible to limit the number of stages especially to neck thinner cans, and to make the dies more tolerant towards the imperfections of the cans.

The crystallographic texture of a great number of polyethylene films manufactured by the film blowing process has been investigated by X-ray diffraction. Some films present a classical texture (c-axis in the machine direction), which can be interpreted using existing morphological models. Other exhibit an original texture (c-axis in the film thickness) and no satisfactory morphological model has been proposed until now.

The A75 motorway bypass of Millau in Aveyron, in south France, requires the construction of an impressive viaduct to cross the Tarn valley. The bridge which will be the highest in the world with piers reaching 240 m in height, will have a steel box section deck with an orthotropic upper flange. The launching will be carried out on steel lattice towers. Steel shows here its exceptional capacities to respond to the challenge of building one of the largest multiple cable-stayed span in a difficult site, at the eve of this new century.

Assuming an equi-incremental mechanical work in each constituent in an intermediate mixture law, this article shows how this assumption avoids any arbitrary fitting parameter on the contrary of classical variants and focuses on the interest of this approach through comparison with other modelling methods as Taylor, Sachs and self-consistent theories.

The influence of Cd, Sn and Ge on the kinetics of the Guinier-Preston (GP) zones formation has been studied for the Al-7 %Zn-3 % Mg-0,05 % Cd(0,05 %Sn) and Cu-2 % Be-0,3 %Cd(0,3 % Ge) solid solutions. The volumic fraction of the formed GP zones is determined by a method based on microhardness measurements. Traces addition of Cd and Sn cause, respectively, a delay in the GP zones formation and an elimination of these zones, in Al-Zn-Mg-Cd(Sn). For the Cu-Be-Cd(Ge) alloys, the added Cd atoms accelerate the GP zones formation, while Ge atoms at a concentration of 0.3 % have no influence.

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.

In this paper, two techniques allowing in-line control of the surface cleanliness of steel sheets are presented. Surface pollution is produced during cold rolling and temper rolling. It consists roughly of oil and iron fines. The residual iron content can be measured by a first system based on infrared light reflection. The second system developed for the determination of oil pollution is based on an UV photoemission technique.

This paper describes a new approach for the functional characterization of the surface topography of metallic products. The aim is to determine in a quantitative and unbiased way the roughness parameter which describes best the property or the function of the material. To achieve this, a new numerical statistical treatment had to be defined and a specific software had to be designed and developed. With these tools, more than 100 roughness parameters can be calculated. The most pertinent one for the description of the relationship between brightness and roughness of cold rolled steel sheets is the fractal dimension.

Several ferritic stabilized and austenitic stainless steels were investigated under cyclic high temperature corrosion conditions in order to assist material engineers in the choice of materials assigned to automotive exhaust systems. Cycle conditions were chosen to be representative of an actual vehicle use. The importance of spalling phenomena was confirmed. Due to their low thermal expansion coefficients, the ferritic stabilized grades behave fairly well, even in these rather severe high temperature conditions. The influence of nature and concentration in stabilizing elements (Ti, Nb) on the cyclic oxidation behaviour is pointed out.

All over Europe, multi-storey car parks represent an increasing market for steel construction. In France, fire safety regulation imposed structural stability requirements, which diminished dramatically the competitiveness of steel solutions. During the last 5 years, CTICM and other European partners have demonstrated the remarkable behaviour of composite steel and concrete structures under natural fire conditions. As a consequence, and with the authorities approval, a first steel frame open car park has been erected late 2000 near Paris.

Gas and liquid flow between the various compartments of surface treatment reactors have strong influences on the control of the reactant composition and temperature and, consequently, on the performance of the reactor. Two industrial examples are presented: the tracing of a multi-bath continuous pickling reactor to determine the amount of back mixing and its consequences on productivity, the tracing of multi-compartment annealing reactors to evaluate the gas exchanges between compartments. Mathematical modelling describes the observed behaviours.

Improvements of hot-dip galvanized products in metallurgy, coating quality and surface characteristics have led to coated products usable for automotive outer panels. With adaptation of processing parameters, if necessary, galvanized products give excellent results in forming, assembling and painting, as well as for functional properties (paint appearance and adhesion, corrosion resistance). This is particularly the case for ExtragalR, which is a pure zinc hot-dip galvanized product (GI).

This study concerns the inhibition of the corrosion of the aluminium alloy 3003 in a solution of 3% NaCl by Li+, Mg2+, MoO42-, NO2- and CrO42- ions. The methods used are the determination of the polarization curves and the metallographic examination of the surface condition. The results obtained show that the tested ions inhibit the corrosion process.The comparative study of the effect of these ions shows that the Mg2+ ions are the most efficient ones in the temperature range from 25 to 65°C. The inhibition efficiency increases with the concentration of these ions and reaches a maximum value of 86% for 5 × 10-2 alloy. As a consequence, the gap between pitting and corrosion potentials becomes larger. At 75°C, Mg2+ ions tend to stimulate corrosion of alloy 3003 in the chloride solution considered.

It is known that age-hardening in lead-calcium alloys proceeds in two stages. The first corresponds to two concomitant hardening transformations of discontinuous type and without precipitation. The second, is a lamellar reaction of precipitation of Pb3Ca. The ageing of lead-cadmium alloys is characterized by a continuous precipitation and a discontinuous transformation. The hardening process is followed by an overaging which consists of a discontinuous transformation with a reprecipitation of the Cd from the fine hardening precipitates of the same phases. With an aim of improving the mechanical and electrochemical properties of Pb-Ca alloys, we undertook a study of the influence of minor additions of cadmium on the age-hardening of these alloys. Two structural states were considered: as-cast condition, rehomogenized condition.

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.

Continuous (CDRX) and discontinuous (DDRX) dynamic recrystallizations in the hot working range are compared on the basis of large strain flow curves and EBSD measurements. The same basic mechanisms occur in the two cases, but with different kinetics leading to distinct textures and microstructures. Furthermore, a transition from CDRX to DDRX may occur in high stacking fault energy metals at very high levels of purity.

The effect of methionine ethyl ester (MetOC2H5), a non-toxic compound on the corrosion of iron in citric-chloride solution at pH = 5, has been investigated by various corrosion monitoring techniques. Results obtained reveal that this compound is a very good inhibitor. Potentiodynamic polarization studies show that MetOC2H5 is a mixed-type inhibitor and that it acts on the cathodic reaction without changing the mechanism of hydrogen evolution. Variation in impedance parameters (Rt and Cdl) are indicative of adsorption of MetOC2H5 on the metal surface. The adsorption of this product on the iron surface obeys a Temkin adsorption isotherm. The effect of temperature indicates that inhibition efficiency of MetOC2H5 slightly changes with increasing temperature in the range of 30-60 °C.

In 1900, the blast furnaces of Saint-Louis were the only ones in France still producing ferromanganese. As the French steel mills became more and more located in Lorraine, a new production site for ferromanganese was looked for in northern France. At the Channel coast, the recently modernized blast furnaces of Outreau wanted to diversify their fabrications. The two companies came to an agreement and the ferromanganese activity was transferred to this site with great industrial and commercial success. In 1906, a blast furnace moved from Marseille was started up at Outreau as a ferromanganese furnace.

The recent developments of the Pulse Discrimination Analysis by Optical Emission Spectrometry (PDA-OES) and the application of this technique for static analysis as well as for chemical mapping permit to characterize inclusions or heterogeneities with a size ranging from 2 to 20-30 μm. The present improvements of OES permit the steelmakers to have a more detailed information than by the conventional chemical analysis methods. The fast identification of defects such as inclusions or segregation permits to validate more easily the product quality and to adapt the processes.