"For cold rolled steel grades (uncoated, electrolytically coated or hot dip galvanised) an increasing demand still exists concerning the mechanical properties, the uniformity along the total strip length and the reduction of variations from coil to coil. A very promising way to reach these improvements is rigorous metallurgically based through process modelling, simultaneously using the results from laboratory trials and from the plants. The aim of this project was therefore to establish a metallurgically based simulation system to allow a prediction of microstructure and mechanical properties as a function of chemical composition and processing parameters. The project was focussed on high-strength thin sheet grades (without DP- and MP-steels). All the important metallurgical processes during cold strip production were investigated thoroughly with regard to the impact of chemical composition. The modelling was carried out starting from models for soft LC and IF grades, which were developed in a previous ECSC project. By means of data from the appropriate experiments these models were critically checked and adapted to the much broader range of chemical composition of this project. All models were linked by a graphical user interface (GUI), which allows various simulations to be run easily."

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