According to the company, its Extreme Performance Technology (XTP) line of steels relies on controlled thermomechanical processing to produce ultrafine-grained microstructures, those with grain sizes of less than 5 microns. Steel produced through this method has tensile strengths of up to 2,050 MPa, improved dynamic load capacity, and better formability and machinability, the company reports.  

“While XTP-treated steel looks like conventional steel on the outside, its true excellence is hidden beneath the surface: the ultra-fine-grained steel microstructure provides an unprecedented level of material resistance and strength. This creates possibilities and paves the day to versatile designs and unconventional component engineering,” the company said in a statement. 

Swiss Steel said XTP steels can be derived from many types of steel: unalloyed steels, precipitation-hardened ferrite-pearlite steels, bainitic steels, quenched-and-tempered steels, tool steels, austenitic stainless steels, ferritic stainless steels, and high-speed steels. 

“Thanks to consistent ongoing development of thermomechanical process phases virtually any conventionally produced steel can undergo treatment and be considerably improved. In short, the formula is: heat plus force equals ultrafine-grained steel,” it said.