Report on the 5th Workshop on HIPERS-21

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The workshop was held on August 25-26 at POSCO, South Korea. The HIPERS-21 (High Performance Structural Steels for 21st Century) project completed its first term (5 years) last year, and this workshop also served as a place to report the results of this project. 4 plenary sessions, 12 technical sessions, and 34 poster sessions were held, and the majority of them described the results from the first term of the project. Along with our group and the participants from China and Italy, a total of about 100 people attended this workshop (photo 1).

According to the plenary session of Dr. Wung-Yong Choo from POSCO Tech. Res. Lab. and several technical session posters, many excellent results were obtained in the first term of the project, especially in the research fields listed below, and the objective for the second term that started this year is to make these results suitable for practical use.

  • Production of a fine-grained steel by strain-induced dynamic transformation

  • Prevention of grain growth in HAZ by TiN particles

  • Development of a multi electrode high speed welding system

  • A flexible-stiff design system composed of the fine-grained steel and the high toughness steel

  • Development of a delayed fracture resistant 1300Pa grade bolt steel using multiphase microstructure

  • A seawater resistant weathering steel added Ca

Several of the sessions referred to the analysis and evaluation methods that were developed in Japan, especially those at NIMS, and suggested that research in Japan is fully recognized in other countries. In addition, a lot of research is being carried out that consider the cost, enlargement (large scale expansion), and manufacturing process right from the start. Some of them have already started the large-scale research that is trying to work on applications towards the development of commercial production and the modification to a plant-scale, and the trial products that were obtained from this research were exhibited in the entrance hall and at the side of the entrance of the workshop (photo 2).

Director-General of the Steel Research Center (SRC) Kotobu Nagai and Deputy Director-General Kaneaki Tsuzaki attended the workshop from NIMS and presented reports on the recent research activities at the center and the Effective Promotion of Joint Research with Industry, Academia, and Government project called the gApplication of Ultra-Fine grained Steel Sheet to Automobileh. In addition, one member from each of the 5 groups from SRC participated and presented posters on the results of their research. A lot of people expressed interest in our research activities, and we were able to have active discussions with them. There were many questions from young researchers especially at the poster session, and we could feel their enthusiasm to absorb as much know-how of research and information from us as possible (photo 3).

After taking the bus around the iron manufacturing plant lined with many factories and 5 blast furnaces after the sessions, we visited the POSCO museum, which was completed this past July to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of iron productivity (photo 4). The history of POSCO was explained well with presentations of its foundation plan, factory construction, iron productivity, along with a lot of reference material and effective displays. The place was filled with the POSCO spirit to remember its original enthusiasm and to always guide the world.

(Isao Kawaguchi, Yoshinao Kobayashi, Toshiyasu Nishimura, Toru Hara, Yoshiaki Toda, Steel Research Center)

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