5. Conclusion

The metallurgical mechanisms involved in hot rolling have been described in this text. Understanding them has enabled us to optimize this stage in the manufacture of long and flat products, or to justify the choices and practices applied a posteriori; hot rolling is a thermomechanical treatment.

However, the configuration of industrial tools does not allow these different mechanisms to be fully exploited. This is the case for slab reheating, where programming constraints (slab beds) generate gaps between the achievable and the ideal. The same is true of the rolling stage (deformation), where only the "temperature" parameter can be partially adapted, whereas we have demonstrated the importance of the "deformation" parameter. This is all the more regrettable given that, for these two examples, laboratory simulations (in torsion and on a pilot rolling mill) have enabled...