Defence scientists, the Indian Navy and the Steel Authority of India have developed a special grade of steel.
The special steel is military-grade, far hardier and lasting and capable of being used in temperatures as low as — 40°C — and of absorbing great ballistic impact
The breakthrough is the outcome of a technology denial regime and forex crunch as well as a spin-off from the ambitious project to make India’s single largest military platform — a 42,000-tonne Indigenous Aircraft Carrier. “Necessity is the mother of invention,” is the proverb quoted repeatedly by officials at the facilities where the steel is being produced and in the navy.
SAIL has so far delivered about 28,000 tonnes of the warship-grade steel for the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier-1
Public sector SAIL has set up exclusive facilities at a Special Plates Plant (SPP) in Rourkela
the SPP also gave a glimpse into production lines for armoured plates for Russian-origin T-72 and T-90 tanks, the indigenous main battle tank Arjun and for mine-protected vehicles used in counter-insurgency operations. The SPP is being expanded from a capacity to produce 2,000 tonnes to make 12,000 tonnes of special steel.)
Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) worked with technologists to develop and set up a production line of the steel, called DMR249A at the Bhilai plant over the last seven years.
Another variant of the steel, called DMR249B, was made at the Alloy Steel Plant (ASP) in Durgapur. This grade is also being used to repair the Indian Navy’s Russian-origin Kilo-class submarines and is slated for use in another line of submarines. This grade of steel has also been used to build anti-submarine warfare corvette, the INS Kamorta, at Calcutta’s Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, a defence public sector unit.
The process for the special steel was established in Bhilai after successive “melts” in three plants. While the chemistry of the military-grade steel is a state secret, its peculiar characteristics are said to be a composition of elements chromium, nickel, neobium, vanadium and molybdenum (among others) added to iron ore, coke and coal that go into the making of ordinary steel.
technologists have further toughened the steel to produce another grade called DMR249z25. The “z25” is being used for the machine and engine chambers of the indigenous aircraft carrier.
Indigenous manufacturing of India's largest warship — the 37,500-tonne aircraft carrier INS Vikrant — has ended the nation's decade-old reliability on import for military grade steel, needed for warship building.
The Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory — a DRDO unit in Hyderabad — undertook the research, which led to the creation of two types of strategic steel.
While high-strength 249A-type steel is being used for IAC and other warships under construction, there is also 249B-type steel, with even higher strength, for the flight deck of the carrier. Sail made several changes in its furnace, rolling mill and heating pistons to produce this high-strength steel and roll it into sheets of thickness varying between 3 and 70 millimetre.
“Every tonne of the domestic steel costs Rs 4 lakh, while the imported steel would cost Rs 8-9 lakh per tonne,” a navy officer associated with the Vikrant project told Deccan Herald.
Since the aircraft carrier needs 26,000 tonnes of steel, the savings may be more than Rs 1,000 crore only on materials. “There are other hidden costs, but more importantly, nobody wants to part ways with such crucial technology,” he said.