Indigenous Titanium Sponge Plant Goes Operational - India Seventh Nation to Process Titanium Sponge

[Srinivas]

Too many submissions and project work for me these days. Can I have a titanium sponge to rest my tired a$s ?

Sponge do not mean it will be soft and comfortable

 

[Providence]

Sponge do not mean it will soft and comfortable

 

[Echo_419]

Indigenous Titanium Sponge Plant operational
Indigenous Titanium Sponge Plant at Chavara, Kollam has been fully commissioned and started commercial production of Titanium sponge required for Space applications - India has joined an exclusive club with the knowhow to process titanium sponge, a key material in space and defence applications​

Titanium (Ti) alloy products find extensive applications in Aerospace and Defence areas. Properties like high strength to weight ratio and excellent corrosion resistance make Titanium alloys (like Ti6Al4V) useful for liquid propellant tanks for launch vehicles and satellites, gas bottle/liners, inter tank structures and interface rings for satellites. Realisation of Titanium alloy wrought products and fabrication of hardware are carried indigenously. However, the raw material for aerospace grade Titanium alloys with high purity Titanium sponge (min. 99.7% Titanium) was being imported from countries like Russia, Japan and China despite the fact that India is endowed with the third largest reserve of Titanium bearing minerals.

ISRO took the initiative to set up a Titanium Sponge Plant (TSP) in the country to meet the requirements in strategic areas. The annual requirement of Titanium sponge for space programme is approx. 200 – 300 Metric Tonnes (MT). ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) has established a dedicated 500 MT per annum plant at M/s Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd (KMML), Chavara, Kollam. The plant is set up with necessary infrastructure to enhance the production capacity to 1000 Tonnes Per Annum (TPA) in future. This is the only integrated plant in the world that undertakes all activities right from mining of Ti minerals to the manufacturing of aerospace grade Ti sponge under one roof.

500 TPA Titanium Sponge Plant​

The plant is fully commissioned and has started commercial production of Titanium sponge required for Space and Defence applications. With this, India has become the seventh country in the world producing Titanium sponge commercially. Approximately 350 MT Ti sponge has been realised till date with nearly 70% yield of aerospace grade (>99.7% purity). Analysis of the results shows that the sponge produced is of superior quality.

In order to qualify the sponge for space applications, VSSC has realised aerospace grade Titanium alloy Ti6Al4V products at Midhani, Hyderabad through double vacuum arc re-melting route followed by rolling/forging and heat treatment into wrought products in annealed condition and extensive qualification tests have been performed on the material.

Hemispherical domes were made from Ti6Al4V plates through hot forming process at BrahMos, Thiruvananthapuram. These domes are further machined and joined by electron beam welding to gas bottles. Two numbers of such 600 mm diameter gas bottles required for PS2/GS2/L-110 stage pressurisation systems for a rated capacity of 330 bar were realised and qualified. These are used in PSLV, GSLV and GSLV Mk III launch vehicles. All the bottles were subjected to proof pressure testing at 495 bar and accepted. One of the gas bottles was subjected to burst test and the gas bottle withstood 700 bar pressure against 660 bar requirement.

With this, indigenous Ti sponge is completely qualified for space applications giving a big boost to Make in India campaign.

Source:- Indigenous Titanium Sponge Plant operational - ISRO

Brilliant news

 

[[Bregs]]

Great going

 

[Not So Good]

Actually the technology was developed by Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL), a laboratory under DRDO.

And even as far as production is concerned there are many agencies onto it - The job of converting titanium sponge to titanium alloy will be done by the Hyderabad-based Mishra Dhatu Nigam and Hemispherical domes were made from Ti6Al4V plates through hot forming process at BrahMos, Thiruvananthapuram.

Behind every ISRO's success there stand agencies like ECIL - DRDO - HAL and many.

But according to our Very knowledgeable and humble Esteemed Patriotic Indian, DRDO doesn't worth a dime

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

Made in India, but gathering dust

Defence Ministry unit imports titaniumsponge, though it is produced by KMML​

Even as the “Make in India” slogan reigns, a rare “Made in India” product with tremendous defence and aerospace applications is being completely sidelined by Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd. (Midhani) and the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC).

The product is titanium sponge (TS) manufactured by the public sector Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd. (KMML) located here. Though the KMML product is certified by the Hyderabad-based Regional Centre for military airworthiness, Midhani, a Defence Ministry unit which requires more than 1,500 tonnes of TS annually, has never purchased the KMML product. Instead, it is meeting its requirement through imports from Russia.

Michael Vetha Siromany, Managing Director, KMML, told The Hindu that the situation had created a liability of Rs.40 crore for the KMML and was pushing the company into crisis. “Despite stocks of more than 400 tonnes lying unsold, production is continuing on a small scale because the TS plant cannot be kept shut down for technical reasons,” he said. The plant can produce 500 tonnes of TS annually.

VSSC’s case

The VSSC requirement is less and there is a MoU between the KMML and the VSSC that the latter will buy 70 tonnes from the KMML for three years from 2011. But the VSSC stopped purchase in 2012 itself. India’s annual titanium sponge requirement is around 2,000 tonnes.

It was based on a proposal from the former President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, while serving as scientific advisor to the Prime Minister, that the Centre decided to set up the plant to produce TS. The plant was inaugurated in February 2011 by the then Defence Minister A.K. Antony. Commercial production began in September that year.

Source:- Made in India, but gathering dust - The Hindu

 

[SarthakGanguly]

But according to our Very knowledgeable and humble Esteemed Patriotic Indian, DRDO doesn't worth a dime

As an American how do you survive with such pathetic English? Do you live in a hood?

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

As an American how do you survive with such pathetic English? Do you live in a hood?

You mistook him for someone else - he has set the same dp to troll luccha no.1 aka luca1

 

[proud_indian]

You mistook him for someone else - he has set the same dp to troll luccha no.1 aka luca1

 

[Not So Good]

As an American how do you survive with such pathetic English? Do you live in a hood?

American? Me? Nah

 

[trident2010]

What is Titanium Sponge?

Titanium sponge is a porous form of titanium that is created during the first stage of processing. In its natural form, titanium is widely available within the earth’s crust. After being extracted, it is processed to remove excess materials and convert it into a usable, although costly, product.

The conversion process used with raw titanium is called the Kroll process. This is a complex, multistage, batch process that requires very high heat and specialized equipment. The Kroll process converts the metal oxide into chloride by passing the metal over extremely hot rutile or ilmenite and carbon to create titanium tetrachloride. These chemicals are separated through a process called fractional distillation in which the components of a mixture are separated based on their different boiling points.

The material resulting from the Kroll process is titanium sponge. This sponge is then subjected to leaching or heated vacuum distillation to remove further impurities. The remaining materials in the sponge are jack hammered, crushed, pressed and melted to remove even more impurities.

In the next stage of the process, the titanium sponge is melted. It is then put through a process of fractional distillation to remove excess liquid and combined with molten magnesium, iron aluminum, vanadium or molybdenum and argon in a very hot furnace. The purpose of combining these materials is to add strength and stability to the titanium sponge and create a pliable metal alloy.

At this point, the converted titanium sponge is ready for fabrication. Some firms sell titanium sponge as a finished product, while others complete the conversion process internally. The sponge can now be formed into mill shapes such as a bar, plate, sheet or tube. These products are then shipped to different mills and fabricators to created finished products for commercial use.

Titanium is used to produce parts for jet engines, missiles, orthopedic implants, jewelry and mobile telephones. The most important properties of titanium are its low density and high level of corrosion resistance. Although six times as expensive as steel, titanium is very resistant to corrosion in both sea water and chlorinated water, making it popular with a wide range of manufacturers.

Titanium was first discovered and documented by William Gregor in 1791. Although purified titanium is quite costly, it is available in its basic form, in almost all living creatures. It can also be found in rocks, water and soil. The process of extracting it and combining it with alloys is what makes the procedure complex and expensive.


What is Titanium Sponge? (with pictures)

 

[Makaramarma]

Midhani expects upcoming facility to open exports | Business Standard News

Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd (Midhani), working under the aegis of Defence ministry, expects its upcoming Rs 200-crore manufacturing facility here to open export opportunities in the areas of ferro alloys, advanced ultra-super critical alloys in the power generation.

“By next year November, with the commissioning of the new plant, our capacity will more than double from the existing 6,000 tonne. The fresh capacity allows us to do a business of Rs 1,500 crore. Consequently, it opens a window of opportunity for exports,” said M Narayana Rao, chairman and managing director, Midhani.

The company clocked sales of around Rs 550 crore last year with a capacity utilisation of 40-55 per cent. For the current financial year, it expects this to touch Rs 600 crore. Its customers include space sector, defence, atomic sector and civilian needs.

“We are in the process of strengthening the research and development (R&D) of future high-temperature alloys,” said Rao. The public sector undertaking (PSU) had recently developed super alloys like 617cc, 740cc in this category. For the next two years, it had earmarked an expenditure of Rs 25 crore. “Working as a PSU enterprise, I have very little flexibility to commit huge allocations here,” added Rao.

It now depends on imports for procuring essential key inputs like nickel, chromium, molybdenum and titanium. However, for aeronautical grade titanium, the sponge plant set up by the Kerala Metals and Minerals Corporation, with the funding support from the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, a research unit of DRDO and the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), would help Midhani achieve indigenous capability, he said.

“The sponge from here is undergoing aeronautical standards qualification by us for mould development, and it may take another 8 months for completion,” said Rao. Similarly, for Hafnium and Niobium capabilities, it was working with the Isro.

Last year, it made a profit of Rs 117 crore. It had been paying a dividend of Rs 37 crore each year for the last two years to the Union government.

At the 10th edition of its annual Customer Meet on Friday, Midhani announced unleashing a ‘Corporate Plan’ as early as next month to closely monitor its customers’ requirement, shortening the delivery deadline and payment procedures.

It also announced increased interaction with them for achieving greater product quality and service standards, by focusing on key aspects of time, research and customer service. “We want to convey the message- design your own product with Midhani,” said DK Likhi, director - production and marketing, Midhani.