Tata   Steel is the leading supplier of advanced steel sheet for interior as well as exterior parts for the Indian car makers.  Some of the steels being supplied    include   the  highly  formable   Interstitial   Free  (IF),  dent resistant, IF-High Strength (IF-HS) and the Bake Hardening (BH) grades. All these may lead to making the car body lighter and stronger. These have been well  received  by the market and in many instances, have started replacing the  expensive  imported  materials.    For   this achievement the Research & Development   Department  of Tata Steel has been awarded the "National Award for   R&D  Efforts  in Industry (New Material)" - 2001, by the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Government of India.

For  keeping the tradition of creating innovative and quality products that meet   the  highly  demanding requirements of the Indian auto industry, Tata Steel  has commissioned a powerful Electron Back Scatter Diffraction (EBSD) - the new attachment to the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) at R&D, Tata Steel. The EBSD would be a vital tool in developing and characterizing high strength, formable steel grades in the near future.

The EBSD Unit can capture information on a very fine (angstrom) scale which is vital for predicting some important performance of materials such as the ability  of   sheet steels to be formed in to various components.  These may be the door, the fender, or the bonnet etc. of a car.

The  SEM at Tata Steel is a very effective tool in characterizing materials particularly   in    analysing   and    explaining  failures  of   engineering components.   With the commissioning of the new attachment  -- EBSD, the SEM at   R&D  of  Tata  Steel  now  has   become   one  of  the  most powerful and sophisticated instruments with capabilities for high class micro-structure, chemicals and physical analysis and crystal orientation determination. This is only the second unit of its kind in the country.

The  commissioning  of  the EBSD is bound to usher in a new and significant era  in material characterization in this country and shall lead Tata Steel to  greater  heights  in   supplying  even  more demanding and sophisticated materials to its customers.