Research & Development
Energy Efficient Fluids
The research in this area focusses on the development of efficient coolants and lubricants for rolling.
After laboratory tests had confirmed that suspending nanoparticles in an aqueous medium result in a higher heat transfer rate, subsequent tests have shown that the overall heat transfer was between 1.8 (at high temperatures) and 2.5 times (at low temperatures) that of water. For industrial scale use however, methods for large scale production and safe handling of these fluids were needed.
As a first step to solve these problems, an effervescent tablet was developed that would dissolve in water in five seconds. A patent application for this has been filed. As a second step, a novel concept of a high speed shear mixer for bulk nanofluid generation was demonstrated in October 2008 for 20,000 litres for use in wire box cooling in the wire rod mill of Indian Steel and Wire Products Limited, Jamshedpur. The higher cooling rate compared to normal water cooling opens up a range of applications in process control and product design.
Other prospective application areas for nano-coolants that have been investigated include increased cooling rates at the hot strip mill to enable low cost manfacturing of Dual Phase (DP) steels, stove cooling in blast furnaces, and heat recovery from waste gases and exhaust pipes.
Examples of business unit implementation and customer support
Early in 2008, TSE launched its new product MagiZinc®. MagiZinc® is a steel strip with a zinc coating to which small amounts of aluminium and magnesium have been added. In accelerated corrosion tests, the corrosion resistance of MagiZinc® proved to be at least four times as high as the corrosion resistance of conventional galvanised steel for the same coating thickness. This offers the opportunity to reduce the metallic coating weight while still improving the properties of the material. First applications can be seen in the construction industry and include channels for ventilation systems and cable trays in large commercial and residential buildings. In July 2008, MagiZinc® was awarded the Tata Group Innovation Award in the category of “Promising Innovations”.
TSE has been working with the UK Ministry of Defence to develop a new high-strength armour plate at a lower cost. The basics of this new super bainite steel were originally developed by Cambridge University, QinetiQ and The Ministry of Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. TSE subsequently developed the product to industrial scale using its laboratory, pilot and full scale production facilities.
For the automotive industry, in addition to its efforts to develop advanced steel grades, excellent customer support is a key target. TSE’s portable strain analysis system (PHAST) combines expertise in three-dimensional measurement technology with in-depth materials knowledge and has been used for some years with much success to support press shop operators in using new steel grades or help solve problems in pressing complex car parts.
In 2008, an upgraded version of this system was launched, which provides analysis results within a few hours, so allowing minor changes to tool geometry or press settings to be made and their effect analysed during one shift.
The current focus for the packaging market is on developments that lead to growth with existing products, particularly in the European market. For example, working closely with TSE, Italy’s leading maker of cans for the paint and edible oil markets Gruppo ASA has developed PlatinunÒ, a new family of containers for paint based on TSE’s ProtactÒ polymer-coated packaging steel. PlatinunÒ has attracted a great deal of interest among paint manufacturers.
