Before the secondary production, the microstructure of the casting products is

not adequate, so it must be changed, and this is realized by the hot bulk deformation
processes.

The resultant cast product microstructure has three distinguishable zones that
characterizes the very large products that are obtained: a chill zone (an external skin of
fine equiaxed grains), a zone with large columnar grains and a center-equiaxed fine
grain zone. This non-homogeneous microstructure introduces some defects that are
characteristic of the primary cast products, that are: the presence of large grains; the
non-equiaxed structure; the inhomogeneity of the chemical composition, due to the
macro and micro segregations ; and the gas porosities and shrinkage porosities. Those
defects affect the mechanical properties of the products in such a way that the obtained
mechanical strength and toughness are so reduced that they cannot be directly put in
service in the form of ingots, blooms, slabs and billets, requiring further modification in
the microstructure before the secondary steelmaking processes, which is achieved by the
hot bulk deformation processes.

The hot bulk deformation processes provide have a double intent: to change the
shape of the casting products by means of compressive forces, and to refine their
inhomogeneous microstructure.
 Among the possibilities for hot bulk deformation processes, we can highlight
rolling, that reduces the thickness of the workpiece (a slab for example) by passing it
between two rolling cylinders that are pressed against the workpiece; forging, that is
characterized by the presence of two dies (a moving upper one and a fixed lower one)
that realize the shaping of the workpiece to the form of the dies; extrusion, that consists
in a cylindrical ram pushing the cylindrical workpiece (a round billet for example)
against a die containing an opening with a smaller diameter than the workpiece, through
which the workpiece passes, having its diameter decreased; and wire drawing, that is
similar to extrusion and works also with a cylindrical workpiece, but instead of being
pushed, it is pulled from outside the die, acquiring the shape of the opening of the die.

Something that all of the mentioned hot bulk deformation process have in
common is the large plastic deformation combined with heat, in order to allow the
workpiece to reach a minimum temperature necessary to: reduce the size of the coarse
grains characteristic of the columnar structure by dynamic recrystallization; reduce the
inhomogeneity of the microstructure, through the reflowing of metal and diffusion of
the chemical elements, which eliminates the macro-segregations; and close the residual
porosities and shrinkage cavities. Those processes increase the mechanical properties
and reshape the workpieces in such a way that the products obtained may be already
suitable for some applications, however for some other applications, secondary
deformation processes must be further realized.