大约15年前开始大量生产铌钢。早期钢中Nb含量高达0.03%，允许在碳当量大幅降低的钢中获得更高的屈服强度。因此，这些钢的热影响区性能优异，被广泛用于船舶、桥梁、管道等的焊接结构。 最近的发展已经将铌强化的应用扩展到更高的屈服强度、更复杂的底板成分、更大的厚度以及更恶劣的气候区域，如北极。此外，铌含量已增加（在某些情况下达到0.10%以上），轧钢和热处理实践已变得更加复杂，焊接评估现在涉及焊缝和相邻基板的所有区域。 在最近的几项规范中，焊缝金属韧性最低值的加入使人们关注高稀释焊缝中过量铌含量的潜在有害影响。 然而，最近的研究表明，铌的行为与基板的碳、钛和钒含量以及焊接工艺和所用耗材的特性密切相关。 本文总结了目前铌强化钢在各种焊接结构中的广泛应用。

Significant production of niobium steels began about 15 years ago. The early steels contained up to 0.03% Nb and permitted higher yield strengths to be obtained in steels having greatly reduced carbon equivalents. Thus the heat-affected zone properties of these steels were excellent and they were widely adopted for welded construction of ships, bridges, pipelines and the like. More recent development has extended the use of niobium strengthening to higher yield strengths, more complex base plate composition, greater thicknesses and to more severe climatic regions such as the Arctic. In addition niobium contents have been increased (in some cases to above 0.10%) steel rolling and heat treating practices have become more sophisticated and welding evaluations are now concerned with all regions of the weld and adjacent base plate. The inclusion of weld metal toughness minimums in several recent specifications focused attention on the potentially detrimental effect of excessive niobium levels in high dilution welds. However recent studies have demonstrated that the behavior of niobium is strongly related to the carbon, titanium and vanadium contents of the base plate and to the characteristics of the welding process and consumables used. The paper summarizes the extensive current usage of niobium strengthened steel in a wide variety of welded constructions.