Murugappa Group arm CUMI opens composite electromineral plants at Cochin

New plants will add 25,000 tonnes of fused minerals, with potential sales of about $ 30 million

Last Updated : Mar 24 2017 | 3:25 PM IST

Carborundum Universal (CUMI), one of India’s leading players in the area of materials sciences and a part of the Murugappa Group, inaugurated three new fusion plants at its electromineral complex in Edapally, Cochin (Kerala).

The new facilities – a zirconia bubble fusion plant and two alumina fusion plants – will result in creation of one of the most advanced and integrated electromineral complexes in the world.

The facilities, built with an investment of Rs 80 crores, will add, at full capacity, about 25,000 tonnes of fused minerals generation, with potential sales of about $30 million.

The zirconia bubble fusion plant is a modern tilt furnace that will blow zirconia bubbles at nearly 3000°C. Zirconia is extensively used in ceramics, refractories, pigments and nuclear industries. The company’s two alumina fusion plants are a modern pot furnace and a tilt furnace of large capacity.

The electromineral complex of Carborundum consists of fusion and processing facilities at Edapally, a Microgrit facility at Kakkanad, a silicon carbide complex at Volzhsky in Russia, a smaller unit at Koratty, bauxite mines and a calcining plant at Okha in Gujarat, quartz mines at Orlof in the Volgorad Oblast in Russia, stabilised zirconia fusion and processing facilities at Phalaborwa in South Africa, as well as a hydroelectric power plant at Maniyar in Kerala.

At these facilities, CUMI manufactures a wide range of aluminas, silicon carbide, zirconias, engineered grains like Azure S, microporus high temperature insulation Nebulox, microgrits and treated grains.

CUMI was founded in 1954 as a tripartite collaboration between the Murugappa Group, the Corborundum Co, USA, and the Universal Grinding Wheel Co Ltd, UK.