Steel – a 'must have' defence technology
From the cannons at Trafalgar and the revolutionary hull of HMS Warrior, to the tank armour on Challenger and the jetfighter undercarriage on Typhoon, cutting edge steel technology has for centuries given UK forces the winning edge.

Steel – a continually evolving technology
Many of these advances are having a direct influence on the design of future defence platforms. The development of FerriumS53, a 2GPa corrosion resistant steel, for example, is set to eliminate the use of toxic landing gear coatings. Similarly, the resilience of a variety of next generation land platforms may benefit from the recent discovery of structural twinning induced plasticity (TWIP) steels with uniform tensile ductilities approaching 100%. As a consequence of other scientific discoveries, relating to bainitic steels, the strategic advantages connected with access to a range of armour steels produced in the UK may also soon be realised.

Steel – an emerging technology
Because steel has been around for a while, it is widely seen as a mature technology with well-defined performance limits. However, research shows that nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, it was not so long ago that the development of Ferrium S53 was, with the exception of a few visionaries, viewed as nothing more than a pipedream.

Work on very high carbon austenitic steels has demonstrated that 2GPa corrosion resistant steels, with twice the tensile ductility of Ferrium S53, are now possible. Other work suggests it may be possible to produce similar steels with strengths of 4GPa, while retaining high levels of ductility and corrosion resistance, the ballistic properties of which are likely to be interesting.

The combined use of multi-scale modelling tools, which allow steels to be designed from the atomic level upwards and sophisticated in-situ characterization techniques, is also starting to provide meaningful insight. 'Quantum blacksmiths' working in this area have produced experimental gun barrel steels with previously impossible property combinations using much leaner chemistries and far simpler processing.

Steel, although it has given up some of its secrets, is still an emerging technology as more treasures remain to be discovered, a few of which will be presented at this event.