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Abstract
Although steels containing small amounts of vanadium or titanium had long been available, the rapid development and exploitation of microalloy steels was initiated by the recognition of the advantages of adding a small amount of niobium to C–Mn steels. This occurred in 1958 with the first successful production of niobium treated steel by the Great Lakes Steel Corporation of the USA. Various factors contributed towards this development including the availability of a supply of relatively low cost ferroniobium in the late 1950s and the discovery at this time of very large deposits of niobium bearing ores in Brazil and Canada which guaranteed the stability of future supply and price. Further development of microalloy steels was held back by a lack of knowledge of the exact role of niobium in influencing steel properties. Research carried out at The University of Sheffield in 1959–1960 provided a fundamental understanding of the effect of niobium. This was the first of many scientific investigations to study the influence of niobium, vanadium and titanium which contributed to the successful development and production of microalloy steels.