Thermomechanically-controlled Processing for Producing Ship-building Steels

The thermomechanically-controlled processing of a newly developed high-strength lowalloy steel has been designed in such a way that the problems, normally faced in producing thequench and tempered steels, have been mitigated and the final product (steel plates) are available in as rolled condition rather than quench and tempered steels.A low-carbon, low-alloy steel having nickel, chromium, copper, niobium, boron, has been designed for ease of welding, improved weldability over the conventional steels, and responsiveto the thermomechanically-controlled processing. A number of laboratory-scale batches of the alloy were made with different combinations of thermomechanically-controlled processingparameters. The different thermomechanically-controlled processing parameters studied include (i) slab-reheating temperature,~ (ii). def.orm ation above recrvstallisation temperature, (iii)deformation below recrystallisation temperature, and (iv) finish-rolling temperature. The thermomechanically-processed steel plates, under certain combinations of  thermomechanically-controlled ~rocessi-ne.o arameters. showed excellent combination of imvact and tensile n.r on. erties. In this paper, the microstructure-property correlation has been made to throw light on the type of microstructure required to obtain such superior package of mechanical properties. Further, the optimised laboratory-scale thermomechanically-controlled processing parameters, which were used to process newer hatches of the steel made through industrial route, have delivered encouraging results.