Delivering the J. Keith Brimacombe Memorial Lecture to open AISTech 2018 in Philadelphia, Pa., USA, Speer told conference attendees that companies such as AK Steel and United States Steel Corporation are indeed investing in future production of those steels. However, challenges remain, he said.

“We’re not finished yet with the process development that we need to really enable these steels,” he said.

Among those challenges, he said, is weld cracking associated with galvanizing-zinc penetration at the grain boundaries.

“This problem is being investigated, but we need more process development or more product development to desensitize the steel to liquid-metal embrittlement.”

Speer also spoke to product and process development in broader terms, arguing that the two are intimately connected.

“They’re really inseparable,” he said “You can’t create a new product without the process development that goes with it and the capital investment (needed to) implement that process commercially.”

And applied to steel, much development work remains.

“This is a really an exciting time. People must think we know everything there is to know about steel, but we’re learning new things every day.”