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The common microalloying elements used in HSLA steels are vanadium, niobium and to a lesser extent, titanium. Compared with niobium, vanadium steels offer certain process cost advantages in continuous casting and hot rolling.
 In Continuous Casting
During continuous casting, the "ductility trough" for vanadium steels is much smaller than for niobium steels, reducing the tendency for cracking when straightening the cast slab or billet. This characteristic of vanadium reduces scrap and/or rework costs.
In Hot Rolling
The higher solubility of vanadium carbo-nitride means that lower reheat temperatures can be used prior to rolling or forging, saving energy costs. Higher solubility along with minimum solute drag characteristics of vanadium also allows the use of recrystal-
lized control rolling practices. In this practice, refined austenite grains are achieved by repeated recrystal-
lization after each roll pass, resulting in a continuous reduction of the austenite grain size. The result is a fine ferrite grain size after transformation that can be achieved with higher finish rolling temperatures than niobium grades. Because higher finish rolling temperatures can be used with vanadium, better shape control can be achieved with less roll wear and power consumption.
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