Indigenous technology to produce CRGO steel soon

The CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, a government-enterprise, will develop a technology to produce cold rolled grain-oriented steel (CRGO) in the country soon.
Cold Rolled Grain Oriented (CRGO) steel is a critical input for the manufacturing of transformers which is key for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity to end-users.
CSIR-NML will develop the technology jointly with the Ministry of Steel, Tata Steel and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), said Indranil Chotraj, Head of Business Development, National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML).
The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) is a premier industrial R&D organisation.
Talking to reporters after the conclusion of National Technology Day Celebrations at NML here, Chotraj said all the partners have given their approvals and waiting for creating a detailed project report in this regard.

The work on the project was likely to begin by the end of this year, he said.

At present, India is completely dependent on import to meets its CRGO demand.
Meanwhile, three technologies developed by the CSIR-NML scientists have been transferred to industry in 2013-14.
The technologies developed by the NML included recovery of lead from zinc plant residue, which was transferred to Cinkom Zinc Lead Metals and Mining Industry Co, Turkey.
Besides, Tungsten powder from tungsten carbide hard metal scrap technology was transferred to Mangalore-based Minestone Minerals and a cheap and energy efficient brass melting furnace technology was transferred to Moradabad Industrial Development Company, he said.

Dr K K Paul and Dr K L Sahoo of NML, who developed the Tungsten Powder from Tungsten carbide hard metal scrap and brass melting furnace, said India does not produce Tungsten, which was important metal for the defence sector though we have rich reserve of low grade Tungsten.
The country's annual demand for the metal was approximately 1,500 tonnes and the technology would help extract tungsten from defence shell and cutting material waste, they said adding that the production of the metal would become around 40 per cent cheaper than the conventional method being followed in China.
Referring to the energy efficient brass melting furnace, they said the brassware industrial cluster of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh has always been in the news. Other than manufacturing and exporting brassware artifacts, it has added to the pollution level and global warming due to use of traditional inefficient furnace.

Following the implementation of the technology, they claimed the pollution level would be reduced by 70-80 per cent and the melting timeline by 20-30 per cent.
They said 80 per cent labourers engaged in brassware industries were suffering from ashthama owing to pollution.
NML scientists admitted that the cost of the furnace developed by them was marginally higher than the traditional furnaces but beneficial in long-term and ensures quality production.