[PERSON] et al. (Contribution n.1) report about the 100 CrMo7. This material is usually adopted for bearings in rotating machinery and therefore its production route calls for specific and will identify heat treatment parameters in order to guarantee the best achievable mechanical properties as obtained by microstructure optimization. The standard heat treatment adopted for this class of materials consist in an austenitization step, followed by quenching in a salt bath. The paper reported in this special issue shows a comparison between two different routes (based on martempering and austempering) finalized to reach hardness and microstructure desired targets on EN 100 CrMo7 large-size rings. The paper focused on the effects of temperature and holding time on microstructure. In addition, the effect of the tempering stage in retained austenite content modification is investigated in detail. Based on the achieved results the most promising hardness values are achieved by martempering. On the other hand, auctionped materials showed an hardness loss especially in the middle of the rings. The conducted experiments put in evidence that the cooling rate is a key parameter and that its role is prevalent with respect to holding time. Such industrial-scale analysis, which was carried out on real scale components allowed to reach a specific knowledge about how to manage heat treatment parameters so to respond to the nominal guidelines provided by steel suppliers. These outcomes offer clear insights able to optimize industrial heat treatment parameters, with strong implications regarding steel bearings' products. [PERSON] et al. (Contribution n.2) focuses on post-fabrication heat treatment (PFHT) as a tool aimed to target microstructure and mechanical properties of components produced by additive manufacturing. They report that in 17-4 PH martensitic stainless steel PFHT promotes the formation of precipitates rich in copper and of niobium particles. Authors describe how PFHTs act on the properties of 17-4 PH components manufactured by direct energy deposition method. The effect of aging temperatures and times is reported together with that of direct aging strategy. Optical microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, and transmission electron microscopy were adopted to put in evidence the effect of PFHTs on microstructural evolution. In addition, mechanical behavior was analyzed by means of Vickers microhardness indentations. [PERSON] et al. (Contribution n.3) describe the effect of rapid annealing on microstructure, mechanical properties, and magnetic properties of Non-Grain Oriented Electrical Steel (NGO). The Ultra-Fast Heating (UFH) tests were conducted by a transversal induction heater on 0.5 mm NGO cold rolled silicon steels specimens. The effect of both heating power and the strip speed is considered. The comparison between a typical microstructure as achieved by traditional processing route and the one achieved by ultra-fast heating process shows that UFH process leads to a a well detectable grain size refinement. The results appear to be quite promising for NGO scientific and technical community: in particular, they out in evidence the opportunity given by UFH application to NGO steels in order to face tensile properties comparable to those as achieved by the heating rates typical of conventional process. [PERSON] et al. (Contribution n.4) in their paper analyze the effect of heat treatment on the strengthening mechanisms vanadium and niobium micro-alloyed high resistance steel. The show that in the case of tempered material the main contribution is given by dislocation effect; on the contrary, in the case of tempformed material the effect of precipitates dispersion is the main factor affecting yield strength. [PERSON] et al. (Contribution n.5) focuses on the in-house method of manufacturing a low-cost heat pipe with specified thermophysical properties and geometry. Their paper presents a clear description of manufacturing and testing method of pipes with specific properties and geometry.