Steel Authority of India Ltd’s(SAIL) Rourkela Steel Plant Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has supplied 30.5 tonnes of maraging steel to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to be used in the upcoming ‘Gaganyaan project, the first indigenous manned mission to space.
Mr. Gautam Banerjee, ED (Works) of RSP, flagged off the plates in a function organized at Plate Mill department. The plates which were rolled from 14 slabs were the first lot of the total order quantity.
Representatives from MIDHANI, Hyderabad and Scientists from ISRO were present at Plate Mill during the rolling of the 1st phase plates. The Process chart for the rolling was jointly prepared by Plate Mill and R&C Laboratory of RSP. After rolling, the plates were visually inspected at the cooling bed for their surface finish, thickness, width and length. The rolled plates were certified by the inspection group of MIDHANI and were painted before dispatching them to the destination.
Maraging steel is special quality steel that contains nickel, cobalt, molybdenum, titanium, and aluminum and is manufactured through the vacuum melting process. The Rolling of maraging steel requires very stringent process parameters. Any steel which posses higher strength has low ductility and vice versa but the significance of maraging steel is that it has got very high strength about 5-6 times to that of mild steel along with good ductility. Maraging steel is being used for the launch vehicle rocket motor casing and for other different defense applications. Maraging steel plates rolled in RSP were also used in the recently launched Chandrayan-II.
RSP has been regularly rolling wide plates of maraging steel under a long-term contract with Mishra Dhatu Nigam (Midhani), Hyderabad. The mill has so far rolled 2200 tonne of maraging steel which was supplied to Midhani for the above purpose.
