High Strength Steel

"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Our aim is to make your life as simple as possible, and we genuinely believe that vanadium often provides the most straightforward route to achieving this aim.

Precipitation and grain refinement are the primary metallurgical mechanisms by which vanadium strengthens microalloyed HSLA steels.  

Vanadium remains in solution during hot deformation, thereby allowing grain refinement by recrystalisation, at any carbon level and even in the presence of nitrogen.

The high solubility of vanadium (Solubility equations) allows you to roll many different shapes and sizes without difficulty – as if vanadium wasn’t even there. 

Fine vanadium carbonitrides are easily formed, and controlled, during transformation from austenite to ferrite.  This is why vanadium is the most powerful precipitation strengthener of steel, and it is so simple to use.

Learn more from the experts by visiting our Technical Library, or take a look at these selected examples;

A classic paper from vanadium experts at Swerea Kimab, on the role of vanadium in microalloyed steels.

A recent paper by vanadium expert Bob Glodowski, on how to predict the vanadium strengthening of ferritic steels.

An excellent paper by Neville Baker on vanadium steels