Present status of and future prospects for precipitation research in the steel industry

Precipitation is one of the most important phenomena for controlling the properties of steel. Therefore, numerous studies have been performed in this field. Since 1998, the ISIJ has held a research workshop on precipitation control consisting of around forty members from academia and industry. This workshop held a seminar in autumn 2001 in which some of the workshop members, most of whom were from academia surveyed the present status of precipitation research from an academic viewpoint. In this connection, a review of the present status and future prospects of precipitation research in the steel industry was requested so that an understanding as to how precipitation control was applied in practice could be obtained. This paper is a modified English version of said Japanese review and the recent industrial research on the precipitation control in steel sheets is reviewed and the resultant new products are introduced.