One of Tenaris main commitments is to investing in the production development of high alloy products according to the main international standards and in the continued optimization of its industrial processes and products. In order to pursue this goal, every year Tenaris reviews its Product/Process Development Plan, in particular all R&D activities that will be carried out the following year, performing a detailed program.

For the process and power generation industries Tenaris R&D activities focused on the following subjects:

	Development of the production of ASTM grade 92 (Tenaris T/P92)
	Development of welding procedure specifications for similar and dissimilar boiler grades
	Evaluation of the cold and hot bendability of low and high alloy grades
	Evaluation of long term microstructural evolution of low and high alloy grades
	Extensive creep characterization up to 100,000 hours of low and high alloy grades
	Registration of TEMPALOY AA-1 and A-3 in international standards and codes (ASTM, ASME and TÜV)

All product development activities are coordinated centrally in Dalmine, Italy, and carried out at various locations: in laboratories, metallurgical and engineering departments in Tenaris mills in Italy, Romania and Japan; in the Tenaris R&D centers and in some external institutes like the world recognized CSM (Centro Sviluppo Materiali) based in Rome, Italy, along with several prestigious Universities of Northern Europe. For the process & power generation segments, Tenaris is carrying out development programs about weldability with the Italian Welding Institute and jointly with customers and is collaborating with CSM on the long term microstructural stability of the material.

Tenaris product development and R&D organization have proven to be valuable resources to solve customer application problems, to develop new products and identify cost-effective solutions. Even if each Tenaris R&D center has its own specializations, all of them are integrated and contribute to identifying, for example, optimum process conditions for steel making and casting of high carbon steel, the right chemical composition and heat treatment conditions in order to improve the high temperature ductility of a material, or the ideal microstructural characteristics of low and high alloy grades in order to verify the long term creep stability of a tubular product.