From June 26th to 29th 2017, was held in Nice Acropolis, the 24th IFHTSE (International Federation for Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering) Congress. This annual European Conference on Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering was for this occasion combined with the A3TS (Association de Traitement Thermique et de Traitement de Surface) Congress.

Eighty-eight oral presentations and 36 posters were presented during this event that gathered more than 450 academics, engineers and researchers from industry. This event was an occasion to discuss and disseminate recent advances, innovations and developments in heat treatment and surface engineering.

The papers selected for this special issue of Matériaux & Techniques were written to accompany the related conferences. They focus on the development of techniques for carburizing optimization as well as thermochemical and combined treatments monitoring, on prediction of grain size evolution during heat treatment and on modelling of the kinetics decomposition of carbonitriding gases during treatment. Sub-zero and sequential heat treatments are also emphasized.

Many thanks to the authors that have accepted to present their work in this journal.

© EDP Sciences, 2018