Given the attention supermartensitic stainless steels have attracted in the past five years, it was not surprising that Supermartensitic Stainless Steels 2002, the second conference solely dedicated to supermartensitics, was well visited. No fewer than 110 delegates from 17 countries attended the event, which was organised by the Belgian Welding Institute and was held in Brussels on 3 and 4 October. The two-day programme encompassed 30 paper presentations and a workshop at the end of the first day. In the mid-1990s weldable supermartensitic alloys became available mainly for use in the oil and gas industry. At first there were still welding challenges to be met, and these were the focus of the first conference three years ago. Today, with the main welding problems belonging to the past and a complete set of welding processes available for the material, other matters attracted most of the attention. With over 600km of pipelines laid, the first service experiences are now known. Consequently, as with all new materials that are used for the first time, the first failures in day-to-day operation have been reported. However, the general opinion among delegates was that supermartensitic stainless steels are well on the way to becoming a mature and reliable material. Problems in the production process have been tackled, basic pipeline fabrication aspects have been established and high productivity pipe production methods are being developed that might very well boost the use of the material. At the same time there are challenges that have to be met in order to fully realise the potential of the material. However, the industry, from both the end user and producer side, is succeeding in solving these problems, as the working group on stress corrosion cracking showed. The proceedings of Supermartensitic Stainless Steels 2002 are available through Stainless Steel World. Please contact Thijs Elshof at t.elshof@kci-world.com or tel +31 575 585290.
