Report on ICASS 2004

The Second International Conference on Advanced Structural Steels (ICASS 2004) was held on April 14 to 16 at the Bao Steel Research Institute in Shanghai, China.

The conference began with an opening speech by Bao Steel’s female president Qihua Xie and was followed by a plenary session with reports on the contents of the forefront research in their respective countries by Yuqing Weng from CSM, China, Wung-Yong Choo from POSCO, Korea, Mauro Pontremoli from CMS S.p.A., Italy, and Kotobu Nagai from NIMS Japan. There were 227 presentations during the 3 days of the conference, and approximately 20 percent of them were from Japan.

A large drop curtain surrounded the ICASS 2004 steel research institute, and the ICASS flag was raised along side the Chinese national flag and the Bao Steel company flag.

We arrived in the midst of a huge welcome and were greeted by TV video cameras and newspaper reporters who televised the event immediately on the news and reported it in the following morning’s paper.

After arriving at the steel research institute, we were guided to an exhibition hall and introduced to the history and the steel technology of Bao Steel company and were able to see the body of the Volkswagen that was being manufactured there right before our eyes.

The photo on the top right shows the presentation stage where the plenary session took place at ICASS 2004. The contents of the presentation were displayed in a section surrounded by a gold colored frame, and through the magnitude of the stage and production, we could feel the Bao Steel’s enthusiasm and expectation not only for the plenary session but towards the entire ICASS 2004.

There were 28 presentations at the session on heat resistant steels where I, Hiroshi Ohkubo and my colleagues made our presentations. Over half of all the presentations in this session were made by the Japanese researchers, and the tendency to activate the research in the field of heat resistant steels could be heard in this room filled with standing people. I made a presentation on “Effect of Thermomechanical Heat Treatment in the Magnetic Field on the Creep Properties and Microstructures of the High Cr Ferritic Heat Resistant Steel”. I was extremely happy with the applause that I received for my presentation; however, in the next instant, I was attacked by arrows of questions relating to creep properties and microstructures. I felt that the ensuing discussions were more involved than the ones at the conference which was sponsored by the steel institute this spring and proved to be very meaningful.

About twenty of us from the Steel Research Center who spent 3 days together during ICASS 2004 usually do not have much opportunity to exchange information on our research activities on a personal basis although we belong to the same institute. However, by spending lots of time together and relaxing for 3 days in a foreign country, we were able to develop friendships which are still continuing after our return to Japan.

The next ICASS will be held 2 years from now in Kyongju, Korea. I would like to end this report by expressing my hope that the next conference will be even larger and more active than this one.

(Heat Resistant Design Group, Hiroshi Okubo)