1. Application processes

The material supplied by the fabricator has a "raw" composition and microstructure, which the processor will treat to obtain usage characteristics through processes that cannot be independent of the raw material. Thus, the techniques used to process metallic materials are as old as practical knowledge of metals, even if their description is rare in the ancient world (figure 1 ). In Gallo-Roman times, the Montagne Noire region alone, south of the Massif Central, is said to have produced at least 100,000 tonnes of iron over three centuries by direct reduction in the blast furnace, but no written record remains of the techniques employed or the results obtained. The contemporary science of metallurgy (the iron-carbon diagram dates from 1870-1900: Tschernov, Sauveur,...