Form for disclosure of particulars with respect of Technology Absorption 2012-13.

Research and Development

1. Specific Areas in which R&D was carried out by the Company:
   • Raw Materials
   • Cost and productivity
   • Market and new products
   • Energy and Environment
2. Benefits derived
   • Coal leaching technology has been demonstrated successfully at pilot scale for producing 8% ash clean coal from washery tailings. Regeneration of the chemicals and reduction of energy cost are the remaining challenges for commercial exploitation of the technology.
   • Promising results obtained for extracting low ash (4%) coal with reasonable coking properties from some non-coking coals through organo-refining process. Energy reduction and technology up-scaling are the remaining challenges going forward.
   • Successful pilot scale demonstration made for recovering concentrate with <2.5% alumina from iron ore ultra-fines rejects (<25 micron). The process has been included in the iron ore total beneficiation scheme.
   • Remarkable improvement in pellet strength and RDI has been achieved by adopting a new flux combination (Pyroxenite & Limestone). Future challenges include decreasing the dust generation during pellet making and pellet handling.
   • R&D studies have helped in eliminating inconsistency in liquid steel chemistry prior to continuous casting for welding electrode steels at LD1.
   • Implementation of new SEN designs developed by R&D for reducing slivers in coils, process improvement has been recorded at LD2, product testing is under way.
   • NEST IN Brand has been developed jointly with M&S FP. Response is good – price optimisation in process.
   • Thin organic coating (TOC) for GI tubes (Tata Pipes) developed by R&D for the first time in India, process facility commissioned in Tubes Division, optimisation is the challenge ahead.
   • Successful commercialisation trials of Fire Resistant Steel for Structura Tubes completed.
   • Application of laser-cladded rolls has resulted in significant life enhancement of LD2 foot rolls.
   • Major EVI carried out with M&S FP for Tata Motors, TVS and Bajaj. Cost savings have been reported by M&S. VAVE workshop hold with Volkswagen globally for the first time.
3. Future plan of action

   In order to maximise value creation and create stake holder delight by world class differentiating research R&D shall continue to improve the competitive position of Tata Steel by carrying out research related to Tata Steel's present operations as well as its future business needs. Being a corporate function, R&D aligns itself to the objectives and strategies outlined in the Corporate Vision. Financial Year 2013-14 shall continue with the objectives of process and product innovations, improving existing production processes, support new product development and building world class R&D to sustain and excel.

Technology Absorption, Adaptation and Innovation Efforts made on the process front:

Product:

• Improvement in surface quality with respect to rolled in scale resulted in increase of skin panel yield.
• Reduction in strip breakages at PLTCM through Process Control measures.
• Development of Chemistry and rolling parameters in TSCR for grades such as Yst-38, SAPH 540, API-60 etc. All these grades have shown consistency in mechanical properties through this development. This is a positive trend towards TSCR stabilisation.
• Development of suitable passivation for PLASMA coated rebar and stabilisation of the pilot line at Nagpur for the production of coated rebars.
• Development of air cooled rebars with high UTS/YS ratio (above 1.25) for the applications requiring earthquake resistance.

Pellets:

• Improvement in CCS by addition of flux (lime stone), which resulted in better slag bonding. Utilisation of pellet in bigger iron making furnaces improved.

Sinter:

• Reduction in RDI sinter through magnesium chloride coating.

Nut coke:

• Improvement in reactivity of coke through iron oxide coating. Charging of nut coke and sinter together improved the reactivity of nut coke and thereby the consumption of nut coke could be increased to 200 kg/t HM in E furnace.

Waste to wealth

• Projects to do with
  1. Development of iron ore slime briquettes as a replacement of iron ore lump in LD converter.
  2. Production of DRI from slime and waste coal.
  3. Development of smelting process for the production of hot metal from waste materials such as Iron oxide slime and Jhama Coal. In the process strong briquettes containing iron ore slime and Jhama coal have been developed. The melting will be done in low shaft furnace. The whole process development will result in generation of several patents.
  4. Production of pavement bricks and sewer covers from steelmaking slag.

Patents and Technical papers

• NML-TSL initiative has taken off well. Many good projects were completed. Quite a few of them have resulted in International publication and generation of patents.

Biodiesel

• A detailed project report has been made for the production of Diesel from Jatropha.

Tubes Division:

• New Straightener installed in Precision Tube Mills to increase the contribution from Telescopic Front Fork (TFF) Production.
• Thin Organic Coating (TOC) line installed in Standard Tube Mills to improve the quality of Plumbing Tubes.
• New Welding Machine installed in 3" PT Mill.
• Development of Online Zinc Coating mechanism on welded seams at EPAs.
• Stabilisation of Cold Saw Technology in Precision Tube Mills to get burr free ends.
• Development of low cost high strength Cold Rolled Coils for Precision Tubes.
• Development of 300x200 mm tubes for structural application.
• Development of value added components like Strut, Keel and Rib for AREVA Solar.
• Development of Ultra Thin Galvanised Tubes for Structural Application.
• Development of Thin Organic Coated Pipes for Plumbing segment. Commercialisation underway.

Bearings Division:

• HUB Bearings manufacturing facility has been installed. Imported grinding machines from IZUMI and assembly machines from R&S successfully installed. Following HUB bearings manufactured through this HUB bearing line.
• Design and development done by using Advanced software ROMAX TECHNOLOGIES, U.K.
• 3D-Modelling software SOLID WORKS installed for DEVELOPING mistake proof Drawings.
• The product and process know how & why has been absorbed form IZUMI and R&S fully automatic HUB Bearings.
• Component design parameters have been benchmarked from customers, suppliers from abroad and India.