Novel Insights and Advances in Steels and Cast Irons

The manufacturing sector relies extensively on ferrous alloys, with steels and cast irons serving as essential materials for structural and functional components across a wide range of industries, including automotive, energy generation, and civil engineering. Cast irons continue to play a significant industrial role due to their excellent castability, cost-effectiveness, and intrinsic properties, such as vibration damping and wear resistance, provided by their graphite microstructure. These features make them ideal for complex, near-net-shape components. However, the rapid technological evolution, especially in fields such as Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants, high-speed motors, and advanced automotive bodywork, places ever-increasing demands on material performance. This ongoing progress calls for the development of innovative alloys with improved high-temperature corrosion resistance, enhanced processing efficiency, and mechanical stability under severe deformation. Alongside cast irons, steels continue to represent the cornerstone of numerous industrial and structural applications. Continuous research efforts are crucial for developing high-performance materials in both families, aimed at improving in-service performance under increasingly stringent conditions. In particular, steels constituting the core focus of this Special Issue are subject to intense research directed towards (i) optimizing mechanical properties through controlled microstructural evolution, (ii) mitigating degradation mechanisms in harsh environments, including hot corrosion by molten salts at elevated temperatures and addressing complex paint failures like filiform corrosion on coated substrates and (iii) advancing manufacturing precision and structural integrity, through techniques including additive manufacturing or novel welding methods designed to minimize structural defects. Within this framework, the present Special Issue collects ten high-quality research papers, addressing these areas of investigation, providing valuable theoretical and experimental insights that advance the understanding of ferrous alloy behavior and promote sustainable progress in material performance and manufacturing technologies.