International Conference on Advances in Metallurgy of Long and Forged Products
Conference Details: 12–14 July 2021, Virtual Conference
No. of Attendees: 71
The International Conference on Advances in Metallurgy of Long and Forged Products, which was originally scheduled for 2020 in Vail, Colo., USA, was postponed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The event was held as a live virtual event on 12–14 July 2021, allowing presenters and attendees to participate from all around the world. A total number of 71 attendees from 11 countries attended the conference.
The conference consisted of 24 presentations and a panel discussion with experts from the steel production, automotive, energy, heavy equipment and defense sectors. The three-day program provided presentations on advances in the physical, mechanical, and product metallurgy of bars, tubes and forgings. Presentations addressed new developments in areas such as alloy design, thermal or thermomechanical processing, microstructure control during steel manufacturing or heat treatment, application of alloys to the automotive and energy industries, manufacture of the raw materials, and service performance of the final products.
The first day of the program started with a presentation by Hardy Mohrbacher on a treatise on alloying (especially Nb and Mo) and processing strategies to control particle population ahead of and during carburization. Nicholas Novack gave a presentation on surface and subsurface fatigue as a function of a variety of metallurgical factors for four steels with Ni ranging from 0.13 to 4.15%. Robert Buck discussed the performance characteristics of a unique stainless carburizing steel by use of TiC particles and by avoidance of coarse Cr carbides. Eun Jung Seo presented a study on the benefits of a subcritical pre-heat treatment and the use of Mo in addition to Nb to avoid grain growth in four 4120 Mod-type steels during high-temperature vacuum carburizing.
The second day began with a presentation by Francois-Xavier Hoche on an initial work to develop a higher martensite tempered grade steel for quenching direct from the forge and auto-tempering of the microstructure.
E. Buddy Damm then presented on a computational materials engineering model that highlights the importance of multi-layer microstructure characterization to gain a complete understanding of the microstructure-property linkage.
The third day started with a presentation by Yoichi Watanabe, who presented on a novel nitriding heat treatment process to improve the performance characteristics of gears and shafts. Steve Jansto presented on the use of processing and compositional control in development of low- and high-yield strength, low-C, low-Mn Micro-Niobium structural steels. Keith Wagner presented on an interesting failure analysis of a mill shear component and the value of detailed damage analysis.
The panel discussion was held on Tuesday, 13 July 2021, where the moderator was Patrick Anderson, TimkenSteel Corp. The panelists included Chris Easter, Nucor Corp.; Matthew Kiser, Caterpillar Inc.; Mathew Kirsch, Air Force Research Laboratory; and Kirk Baker, retired, Chevron Corp.
The last time a panel discussion was held at the Long and Forged Products conference was in 2006. To close the loop from the 2006 panel and conference, one of the questions was “In the last 10–15 years, what item (tool/method/discovery) has been the greatest facilitator of the metallurgical advancement of long and forged products in your area?” The panelists explained that advances in the understanding of the effects of microalloys on high-strength, low-alloy steels subject to post-forming heat treatments and welding was of significance. Attendees were given an understanding of the vast complexity of behaviors and interactions be-tween alloying elements during processing and subsequent heat treatments and how these affect the final microstructure and properties.
The International Conference on Advances in Metallurgy of Long and Forged Products proceedings are available to AIST members on the AIST Digital Library at digital.library.aist.org.