LONG PRODUCT

Thermo Mechanically Treated (TMT). Rebar from the long Product Division are produced under the brand name ‗Tiscon‘ and are the 1st of its kind to have been introduced in India Tiscon has been the 1st rebarin the country to be awarded the ‗super brand‘ status in the constant rebar category.

Fig.9 Long Products (Source: Internet) PLANT AND EQUIPMENT

Multidisciplinary engineering approach for design manufacture and supply of high precision equipment is offered to various industry sector by TATA STEEL‘s growth shop division services include erection and commissioning of all types of equipment in plants and industrial building in addition to a wide variety of jobs in matching and assembly.

Fig.10 Plant (Source: Internet)

38 | P a g e RAW MATERIALS

With a century of experience in sourcing raw material through scientific research and development and sustainable mining, TATA STEEL‘s three main areas of raw material, operation are iron- ore, chromites and coal. The company‘s long term strategy has been designed to have greater control over raw material.

Fig.11 Raw Material (Source: Internet)

TURBO

Pipes manufactured by the company‘s strategy business unit TATA TUBES, is the most prominent brand in the industry today which is retailed through a wide distribution network. A deeply thought out branding exercise was under taken in order to unleash the power of the ‗TATA PIPES‘ brand in the welded steel.

Fig.12 Turbo (Source: Internet)

39 | P a g e WIRES:

Steel wires under the brand name TATA Wiron compromise 30% of market share of the organized wire market in India. A wide range of wires manufactured by TATA STEEL‘s wire division cater to the needs of the various industry segments such as automobiles, infrastructure, power and general engineering.

Fig.13.TATA wires (Source: Internet) TECHNOLOGY

A collaborative approach, cross-fertilization of better practices and technology absorption through integration of processes have led to measurable results in the Tata Steel Group‘s

performance in the direction of continuous improvement.

Fig.14. Molten Iron (Source: Internet)

40 | P a g e EAF (electric arc furnace)

The capital costs involved in EAF is lower as compared to BOF (Basic Oxygen Furnace).

Modern EAF has features such as high transformer capacity, Oxygen lances, Oxy – fuel burners, coal injection system, bottom purge holes, water cooled boxes above the slag line, water cooled roof, EBT (eccentric bottom tap hole), Charge hoppers with vibrators etc. to improve productivity. To reduce the power consumption, hot DRI (directly reduced iron) charging facility is available in modern furnaces.

 EAF process uses predominantly scrap. DRI is used when the scrap is not available.

 A new process, which is known as ‗CONARC‘ has been developed by SMS- DEMAG. It employs hot metal, scrap and DRI to different proportions as per their availability.

Fig.15. Liquid iron from the furnace (Source: Internet) BOF (ld Process)

 BOF is a very widely used0 process and does not require external heat, as the process utilises the heat generated by the exothermic reactions during the melting operation. Hot metal and scrap are used for melting. Oxygen is blown through a multi-hole lance to carry out the refining operation. Modern converters have tueyers at the bottom through which Argon or Nitrogen gas is purged.

 Instrumentation in LD has improved for better productivity. Developments include better multi-hole lances, improvement of blow profile by mathematical models, and use of Mag-carb bricks to improve the lining life.

 Some of the developments in steel making process at Tata Steel include a) Stack temperature measurements, b) suitable flux practices, c) installation of sub lance, d) Development of SMART lance, e) practices to avoid the converter slag in to steel ladle at the time of tap, f) Auto alloy additions, g) bottom purging of steel ladle etc.

41 | P a g e

 Secondary refining technology for the production of special grade steels has been

introduced. This includes Ladle refining, CAS, Vacuum refining such as RH and Stream Degassing, AOD and calcium treatment etc.

Continuous Casting Technology

Continuous casting technology has replaced ingot technology, resulting in higher yield and a substantial increase in productivity and quality. Thin slab casting and strip casting have also been developed to reduce overall CAPEX cost of steel production.

Hot Rolling Technology

Developments in Hot rolling technologies include:

 Some of the advancements in slab reheating technology include a) development of high capacity reheating furnaces,

b) development of heat models, c) walking beam concept for uniform heating, d)

atmosphere control (% Oxygen) during heating, e) multi fuel burners, f) development of tunnel furnace technology etc.

 Implementation of High performance descalers (Water pressure: 200 – 450 bar) for better removal of furnace scale prior to rolling.

 Instituting Vertical Edgers and short stroke hydraulic cylinders for better width control of the finished product.

 Development of Semi HSS and oil lubrication in improving the productivity and quality performance of the roughing stand of the hot strip mill.

Fig.16 Hot rolling technology. (Source: Internet)

42 | P a g e Cold Rolling Technology

Developments in Cold Rolling technologies include:

 Introduction of heat shield, edge heating by Induction heaters prior to finish rolling, semi continuous rolling, coil box etc.

 Some of the developments implemented in the finishing mill include:

o Continuously variable crown

o Roll bending / Roll shifting

o Mill lubrication to reduce the rolling load

o Use of HSS rolls for longer campaign life and better product surface quality

o Inter-strand cooling · Completely automated rolling with second level automation system

o Sophisticated measuring house for width, thickness and flatness control

o ROT cooling models

o Robust coilers for winding high strength steels

o CSP mills have been developed to roll wider / thinner gauge steels.

 Surface Inspection System is present in hot strip mills to aid the inspection and quality certification process Ferritic rolling is a process technology, which has been developed to roll thin / soft quality grades.

 Development of 6 HI mills for rolling coils with excellent shape control. These mills achieve heavy reduction per pass (higher productivity) with good thickness and flatness controls.

 PLTCM (pickling line and Tandem Cold mill) converts hot rolled coils to cold rolls

continuously in a very short period of time. High Productivity and good quality are achieved in these mills. The modern mills have auto shape and hydraulically controlled AGC (auto gauge control).

 PLTCM has UC (universal crown) crown to achieve better flatness. Work rolls and the intermediate rolls are bent to obtain the desired roll gap profile.

43 | P a g e Developments in Pickling Technologies

 Pickling facility is equipped with tension leveller to loosen the scale and improve the strip shape prior to pickling. Hot hydrochloric acid is used to obtain complete removal of surface scale of hot rolled coil prior to cold rolling. Some of the modern pickling lines use Turbo pickling to hasten the scale removal.

 Single stand reversing mills are available for the production level of 200 000 TPA. Typical capacity of PLTCM is about 1.25 to 2.0 MTPA. The concept of twin stand mill has been developed to meet the intermediate production capacity around 0.4 – 0.8 MTPA.

 The rolling mills use rolling oils (stable / metastable / unstable) of different quality depending on the mill design and product mix.

 Modern pickling units are equipped with ARP (acid regeneration plant) to regenerate the acid thereby reducing pollution.

 Single stand reversing mills are available for the production level of 200 000TPA. Typical capacity of PLTCM is about 1.25 to 2.0 MTPA. The concept of twin stand mill has got developed to meet the intermediate production capacity around 0.4 – 0.8 MTPA.

 The rolling mills use rolling oils (stable / metastable / unstable) of different quality depending on the mill design and product mix.

 Electrolytic cleaning line removes the rolling oil, which is present on the cold rolled surface.

The facility helps to achieve clean and bright surface after cold rolling.

Developments in Annealing Technologies:

 There are two types of annealing – Batch Annealing and Continuous Annealing. Batch Annealing is chosen when the volume involved per size is small (fragmented orders).

During annealing, a protective gas such as HNX (4-6% Hydrogen with balance nitrogen) or 100% Hydrogen is circulated between the coils and the protective cover to facilitate

annealing. Pure Hydrogen is preferred in modern annealing furnaces because of superior heat transfer; higher annealing base productivity and good CR surface quality. Continuous annealing line generally has capacity 0.50 – 1.0 MTPA. Because of higher productivity, many integrated steel plants prefer continuous annealing. The mechanical properties and surface quality of CR coils are good and consistent. If the CRM complex has PLTCM and CAL, the hot rolled coil is converted into CR in less than one hour.

 High strength steels can be produced by only CAL process.

 Galvanising is a process by which the steel is coated by passing it through a molten zinc bath. The coating thickness is controlled by wiping with air or nitrogen, when the strip comes out of the zinc bath.

44 | P a g e

 Zinc coating on steel prevents the corrosion of iron by sacrificial protection (Cathodic Protection).

Fig.17. Annealing Technology (Source: Internet) BUSINESSS AREAS

The activities of the enterprises promoted by TATA‘s are classified into 12 sectors:

 Metal and associated industries

 Automobiles

 Energy

 Engineering

 Chemical and Pharmaceuticals

 Consumer products

 Services

 Agro industries

 Information technical and communication

 Exports and overseas operations

 Finance

 Constructions.

45 | P a g e COMPANY STRATERGY

Despite the current slowdown in consolidation within the global steel industry, mergers and acquisitions remain a critically important business strategy for most corporate. Steel analysts are expecting new wave of consolidation to take place in the next three years.

Global giants are re focussing on positive markets by applying their resources to the core business where they are most needed. This creates opportunities to gain more market share from competitors who diversify and spilt their focus. Acquisition and strategic alliances are also critical to strengthen, refocus and position companies for increased growth and profitability. The Tata Steel group is strongly pursuing its long term strategy for acquiring and developing mining projects for its raw material security for iron ore and coking coal.

The group has been concentrating in the geographies that are logistically favourable with respect to its plan in Europe and Asia.