When the entire country is rejoicing mission Chandrayaan 2, it is a proud moment for SAIL to have contributed their bit towards the mission and setting a stepping stone towards ‘Make In India’ initiative.
KRC TIMES Desk
Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) has supplied special quality stainless steel from its Salem Steel Plant for India’s Moon Mission Chandrayaan 2 meeting the ISRO’s requirements for stringent specifications of superior surface finish, and close tolerances.
SAIL has previously collaborated with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to provide quality steel for the country’s prestigious and indigenous space missions. For the Chandrayaan 2, SAIL’s special quality sheet has been used in the Cryogenic Engine (CE20).
The public sector monolith Steel Authority of India Ltd. along with ISRO have taken a major step forward as a part of the MAKE IN INDIA initiative advanced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
For indigenously developing the exotic Russian grade ICSS-1218-321(12X18H10T) austenitic stabilised stainless steel is used in the construction of the cryogenic rocket engines that are being made at ISRO.
As a part of this initiative, scientists from Liquid Propulsion System Centre (LPSC) of ISRO and the SAIL team at its Salem Steel Plant have closely collaborated and successfully rolled the stainless-steel coils at Salem.
In this, Electro Slag Remelted (ESR) and forged slabs conforming to ICSS-1218-321 austenitic stainless-steel slabs provided by ISRO have been successfully hot rolled in the Hot Rolling at SAIL’s Salem Steel Plant. This hot-rolled coil of 4 mm thickness was further cold rolled to 2.3 mm thickness as required by ISRO. This 2.3 mm thick sheet has been used in the Cryogenic Engine (CE20) of Chandrayaan mission.
With this major breakthrough, SAIL is optimistic about leveraging other aerospace grades of stainless steel for the space launch vehicle components in the future.
