Tata Steel
Tata Group
101st Annual Report 2007 - 2008

Research and Development – The Innovation Edge

With globalisation and an increasing scale of operations, technological self-reliance has become a necessity. In keeping with global ethics of Intellectual Property, it has become necessary for companies to have their own resources of Research and Development. Outsourcing this activity is becoming increasingly difficult, bringing with it the challenges of IPR sharing and ownership. Hence self-reliance in technology has become a virtual pre-requisite to innovation and growth.

Anticipating the need to become self-reliant in technology, Tata Steel took three steps during 2000-2005 that would help establish itself as a leader in chosen technologies. 1) Formalised the continuous improvement and innovation process under the powerful programme of ASPIRE. 2) Identified the key thrust areas of strategic technology development. 3) Established a sound mechanism for capturing new developments and filing them as intellectual property.

A Focus on Intellectual Property
Although the first patent for Tata Steel was filed in 1947, with IPR becoming strategically significant, a major step in establishing a sound intellectual property mechanism was taken in 2001 with the creation of a Patent Cell. This gave focus and fillip to the intellectual property movement in Tata Steel. The result was almost immediately visible. The initiatives taken over the years have helped Tata Steel increase its total IP portfolio (filed and granted patents and copyrights) from 32 in FY 2000 to 493 till date. Out of these 133 patents have been granted; the remaining 360 have been filed and are at different stages of being granted.

Today, with sound processes and systems in place for capturing new developments, Tata Steel is a benchmark in the Indian manufacturing sector. Given the fact that Corus already has 864 patents granted since 2003, the Tata Steel Group could well be on its way in achieving technological self-reliance.

Challenges ahead
There are two main challenges that will be addressed in the years ahead. The first is the commercialisation of IP, involving the marketing of granted IPs, finding prospective customers and negotiating licensing conditions. Efforts are on to benchmark with international best practices and to take professional help from specialists that provide IP licensing and commercialisation services. Currently one patent and 12 copyrights have been identified for commercialisation as pilot cases. Seven companies globally have shown interest in the patent, with 78 companies showing interest in the copyrights for e-learning packages.

The second challenge that will be addressed is dealing with IP sharing in the case of collaboration with major manufacturing partners. As Tata Steel’s indigenous new technologies are growing in scale, it has become necessary to partner with suppliers and other industries. Maintaining claim on its own IP while also sharing the developmental knowledge with others is a fine balance that needs as much understanding of technology as of legal negotiation skills. Again, efforts are on to benchmark against international best practices on this front.

The vision of the future in IP is to continue to grow the IP portfolio of Tata Steel and to continuously unlock the value through licensing and commercialisation.

Research in Thrust Areas
The Tata Steel Group’s programme of RD&T in Europe, is funded by separate business units, with breakthrough projects receiving direct corporate funding. Several breakthrough initiatives have successfully added value to customers, and enabled profitable commercialisation.

Going forward, Tata Steel’s Research and Development activities will continue to focus on identified thrust areas that include the following:

1. Economic mineral beneficiation
8% Ash Coal maintaining Yield
The objective is to develop a cost-effective beneficiation flow-sheet, including new technology, if any, for producing clean coal with 8% ash maintaining current yield from the captive collieries.

The work is being carried out in three main modules:

(1) Coarse coal beneficiation (2) Fine coal beneficiation and (3) Beneficiation of middlings, tailings and rejects.

For increasing the efficiency of coarse coal beneficiation, a fundamental study was carried out on fluid flow in Dense Media Cyclones (DMC). As a result, a new design for DMC has been patented and a 350 mm diameter pilot scale DMC has been built following the new design. The initial results indicate step change in separation efficiency of DMC.

For the fine coal, focus was given to increasing the efficiency of flotation. Through fundamental studies of flotation, a new chemical frother was developed, that is not commercially available. A completely new chemical-based technology is being developed for treating the middlings, tailings and rejects emanating from the above two processes. A pilot plant is currently under construction in Vishakhapatnam for testing this technology. It is expected to be operational by the end of 2008.

All the above work is being carried out in close collaboration with IIT Kharagpur, Tata Research Design and Development Centre, Pune, University of Queensland, Australia, ISM, Dhanbad and others.

Complete Beneficiation of Iron Ore
Detailed characterisation of as-produced iron ore slimes from Noamundi has been completed. Beneficiation studies through selective flocculation & flotation has started. Exploratory work on utilisation of slimes for making building material, such as tiles, is complete. A pilot plant for iron ore beneficiation, comprising a pilot jig and other equipment is being set up in Jamshedpur and is expected to be complete by January 2009.

2. Stretch the raw materials envelope
Lowering Phosphorus in Steel making

  • Research and Development had earlier carried out an equilibrium phosphorus partition study in Sweden with three components (CaO, SiO2, FeO) system. The present work was taken up to see the effect of trim addition of Al2O3 and Mn on equilibrium phosphorus partition. This study shows the possibility of improving actual phosphorus partition with the addition of small quantity of Al2O3. A further study has been planned to implement the low basicity findings in the actual BOF vessel.
  • A 2-dimensional numerical model has been developed to numerically predict the fluid flow and mixing during combined blowing.
  • Two plant trials with the new 6 + 1 hole lance, aimed at improving phosphorus partitioning were taken in the month of April 2008. The observations corroborate with the model predictions. More trials will be taken in the coming months.

3. Heavy end of the future
Improving Blast Furnace Productivity
Physical model experiments to study the effect of burden distribution, shape of cohesive zone, layer thickness etc. are in progress.

In the next step these models will be linked with fluid flow models of gas flow and reaction kinetics in the blast furnace to give a comprehensive model of the process. This is expected to take another year.

KDRI
KDRI is a coal based DRI technology developed by Corus with the aim of achieving a stantial cost advantage in capital and operating costs over other DRI technologies.

Benefits of the KDRI technology include:

  • Low cost coal based DRI process
  • Direct use of iron ore fines without an agglomeration step needed
  • Flexibility in iron ore grades and carbon sources (low grade coal, biomass)
  • Low temperature process, that is energy efficient and with low carbon consumption, leading to low CO2 emission
  • Low NOx emission

Currently a pilot plant for this process with a capacity of 100 kg/h and a CFB (Circular Fluidised Bed) diameter of 200 mm is in operation at RD&T’s Ceramics Research Centre in IJmuiden. A full size commercial KDRI plant is expected to have a capacity of 1 mt per year or 125 t/h, with a CFB diameter of 3 m, and would cost € 230 mn. To mitigate the risks and reduce exposure, an intermediate step of a larger scale pilot plant is considered necessary in order to:

  • Demonstrate that a full size plant of 1 mtpa is a safe next step in the scaling up process
  • Demonstrate the effectiveness of the new processes and the reliability of the equipment
  • Demonstrate product quality
  • Develop safety and operating procedures

The project is currently subject to a detailed Go/No Go review by the Steering Committee and Corus EXCO.

ULCOS
ULCOS is a large research project aimed at developing new processes that could achieve 50% less CO2 emissions per tonne of steel by 2050. The project combines the capabilities of 48 organisations, including all major European steel makers and engineering companies. During the first two years of the project various innovative ironmaking technologies have been investigated, such as a new blast furnace, smelting reduction, direct reduction and electrolysis, as well as supporting technologies, such as renewable biomass, hydrogen, plasma and CO2 capture and geological storage. These activities resulted in around 200 distinct ironmaking routes. This wide range has been reduced by analysing the challenges that each option should overcome to be demonstrated by 2015. In 2006 the decision was taken to concentrate on four possible routes:

  1. The new blast furnace using pure oxygen and top-gas recycling.
  2. ISARNA, a new highly efficient smelting reduction process.
  3. A new direct reduction process using gas or hydrogen with geological storage of CO2.
  4. Electrolysis of iron ores for direct production of steel.

To further investigate the first option, the experimental blast furnace at Mefos in Sweden was adapted to the top gas recycle concept by installing a CO2 scrubber, gas injection nozzles in the shaft, special tuyeres for 100% oxygen operation and a heater for the recycle gas.

A trial programme was successfully completed in autumn 2007 demonstrating the following:

  • Linked operation of the blast furnace and gas conditioning plant.
  • Blast furnace operation at 100% oxygen.
  • Injection of recycled CO gas at tuyere level.
  • Injection of recycled CO gas at tuyere and shaft level.
  • Replacement of 30% of the coke input by recycled CO gas.

As a pilot for the second option, a 8 t/h smelting reduction pilot plant is currently under construction in VoIklingen (Germany). In this plant the ISARNA process will be tested. This highly efficient smelting reduction process has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% compared to blast furnace ironmaking. The plant is planned to be commissioned in December 2009.

4. Next generation high strength steels
Flat Products for automobiles
The aim of this thrust area is to develop a steel grade with 1000 mpa yield strength and 50% elongation.

A high strength, precipitation hardened hot rolled steel sheet - HR Tata 800 – with an excellent combination of high strength (850 mpa) and formability (elongation of 20%, hole expansion of greater than 130%) was developed during the last year. The possible applications of this newly developed high strength hotrolled grade of steel are being explored for chassis and suspension components such as truck frame, wheel rim, side member, lower and upper arm, transmission cross member etc.

Simultaneous efforts are being made towards the development of the HSS with 1000 mpa yield strength and 50% yield strength utilising (i) TRIP (ii) TWIP (iii) Transformation strengthening effects (iv) Ultra Fine Grain – Multi Phase steels and (v) High nitrogen steels routes.

HSD: High Strength Ductile Steels
The HSD steels development project is collaborative between Corus and Salzgitter and is bound by a non-disclosure agreement. The project has two work streams, i.e. supply chain development and product/alloy development. For the former, an ingot route (300 mm wide) for the production of cold rolled (CR) and continuously annealed (CA) HSD steel has been established via ingot casting at TTC, cogging to slab at CES Stocksbridge, hot rolling at Brinsworth and finally CR and CA at third parties.

In terms of product development, work is going on to develop an understanding of the factors (composition and processing) that control delayed fracture, which is a phenomenon that currently prevents the commercialisation of TWIP steels. Another activity is aimed at optimising the surface chemistry to enable applying the heat-to-coat technique to galvanise HSD steels. Initial results using this technique were significantly better compared to the
conventional HDG process, but further optimisation is needed. A common platform for integrated model development between Corus RD&T and Tata Steel R&D has been developed. This will shorten model development times and avoid duplicity of efforts.

5. Advanced coatings developments
Development of Advanced Coatings
The main objective of this thrust area is (i) to develop a suitable advanced coating on steel sheets to either minimise the use or replacement of zinc (zero zinc) (ii) to develop chrome free passivation for galvanised sheets.

  • Various Zn-alloy coating systems (Zn-Mg, Zn-Cu and Sn-Zn) are currently being developed in laboratory scale.
  • A transfer of technology from flat product to wires saw implementation of thin organic coating on galvanised wires. The result is a wire product with twice its original life. This has been commercialised and is placed as a new, premium brand.
  • Technical specifications for a pilot coating line with facilities for spray, roll coating and dip coating systems have been finalised and commissioning activities are expected to start by September 2008.
  • Research work is being initiated with IICT, Hyderabad to develop sandwich panels for auto applications using modified polymers.

MagiZinc®
MagiZinc® is a hot dip zinc coating with 1-2% aluminium and 1-2% magnesium added to the zinc bath. These elements improve the corrosion resistance of galvanised steel between 4-20 times in a salt spray test. Moreover, the coating offers better formability with respect to zinc pollution in the pressing tool as found after multiple passes in the Linear Friction Test.

Added value of MagiZinc® for customers mainly lies in two aspects:

  1. Improved product performance where the current product is not sufficient or where other expensive measures can be skipped by our customers – the main focus for Automotive Markets.
  2. Cost reduction by reducing the zinc coating weight at equal performance – the main focus for General Markets.

In 2007 three line trials were performed with MagiZinc (1.6%AI + 1.6%Mg) in DVL2 in IJmuiden.

  • The first trial in April 2007 was aimed at producing material for an extensive testing programme. The tests have confirmed previous results regarding properties. The corrosion resistance of MagiZinc® is much better than for Gl in most accelerated tests for various applications.
  • The second line trial in June 2007 was aimed at supplying MagiZinc® trial material to key customers. Most of the feedback from customers was positive, with respect to ail properties.
  • The third line trial in December 2007 was set up to optimise surface quality. Even though some issues remain, good surface quality can be made for most of the product range.

In January 2008, CSPIJ decided to commercialise MagiZinc® (MZ). Roughly, MZ140 (140 g/m2) will replace GI275 in (unpainted) building applications, and will be promoted as a premium product over GI140 for automotive applications for extra corrosion protection.

EML-PVD
Corus has developed a PVD process based on electromagnetic levitation (EML) of the evaporating liquid in a vacuum. Corus is now working on upscaling of this technology, in collaboration with POSCO. The Corus – POSCO collaboration is based on full knowledge sharing, equal risk taking and is fully confidential to Corus and POSCO. Corus is interested in and working on PVD for the packaging, automotive and construction markets.

The PVD project is led by the Corus Strip Division, both regarding technical direction and regarding business cases and market opportunities.

6. Low energy process for the production of Ferro-Chrome
Having identified an alternative process for ferro-chrome production based on laboratory experiments to reduce power consumption from 3500 kwh/tonne to 2800 kwh/tonne, pilot scale experiments were taken up to establish the process parameters and develop engineering process flow sheet to put up a technology proving plant. A pilot scale rotary hearth furnace has been designed, installed and commissioned.

7. Hydrogen harvesting
The Stage III (Technology Development phase) of the project was successfully completed in January 2008. In this stage, pilot scale (10 tonnes slag capacity) was designed, developed and commissioned at LD#2, Slag pit area. Experimentation has been done in which product gas with +70% hydrogen was achieved. The work on Stage IV (Technology Demonstration phase) has been initiated in February 2008. Over the next three months, this technology will be implemented and hydrogen gas will be used to pre-heat chrome ore concentrate briquettes, replacing oil.

8. Viable photovoltaic coating system
Initial literature is being surveyed and discussion with RD&T is in progress.

9. Energy efficient fluids
The objective is to develop next generation, energy efficient fluids as coolants and lubricants.

  • Indirect cooling at low temperature range (<900oc) is in progress. An experimental set-up is ready.
  • Direct cooling at high temperature range (>7000oc) shows that using 1% volume of nano fluids (using nano alumina) increases heat transfer by 19-20%.
  • Lubricants using nano particles have been tested for stability. Tests on lubricity are in progress.

10. Construction
Functional steel roofing
A4 size composite panels with adhesive bonded EPP were evaluated for thermal stability, adhesion and cyclic humidity. All tests were successful. Full size trapezoidal sheets will be manufactured and tested in April 2008. Work is also being discussed in IICT, Hyderabad for PU based laminate development.

Steel fibre based construction
A new fibre, designed by the R&D division, was manufactured at Pune. The product is expected to be commercialised by April 2009, post testing of pilot scale structures which will be carried out to study loading conditions.

A continuing focus on Research and Development
This year Research and Development celebrated the 70th year of its inception at Tata Steel. It has now grown to a total of 100 researchers at Jamshedpur, that include PHDs, M. Techs, Metallurgists and Engineers. Tata Steel organised several international conferences in Jamshedpur that included International Conference on Fatigue, Fracture and Integrity Assessment; International Conference on Automotive Sheet Metal Forming; International Conference on Beneficiation of Fines and its Technology; and International Conference on Microstructure and Texture of Steels.

Awards were also conferred to acknowledge and encourage ground breaking work.

Corus RD&T employs close to 900 full time equivalents. A stantial number of researchers have to be recruited every year as RD&T is also a breeding ground for technologists for the Business Units it serves. A unique initiative run by RD&T to nurture innovative projects is the ‘Seedcorn’ programme which focusses on development of knowledge to meet future technology needs. In 2007, the Seedcorn programme comprised 57 projects of which seven were successfully concluded during the year.

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