The Indian Institute of Metals – Delhi Chapter regularly organizes visits to eminent industries in and around NCR, for benefit of its members. In this series, a team of IIM DC members visited JSL Stainless Ltd., Hisar on 16April 2011, on invitation of IIM Hisar Chapter. The visiting members went around state of art facilities of JSL Stainless and had extensive deliberations with the office bearers of IIM Hisar Chapter.

The two Steel Melt Shops, SMS I & SMS II, comprise Ultra High Power - Electric Arc Furnaces, Argon Secondary Metallurgy Converter and LRF (Ladle Refining Furnace). SMS I is equipped with a continuous slab caster while SMS II is equipped with twin strand bloom caster. In addition, SMS I is also equipped with VOD (Vacuum Oxygen Decarburisation) unit to produce steel with low inclusion and gas content. The present installed capacity of both SMSs put together is 550,000 MT per year. The Slabs are subjected to surface conditioning in a slab grinding section. The Slabs are then Hot Rolled into HR Coils in Steckel Mill, which are then used to produce HRAP No.1 Coils and Plates. HR coils are transferred to Cold Rolling Unit, to produce CR Coils and Sheets. The Blooms are hot rolled in Tandem Strip Mill to narrow coils and flat bars.

In addition, special steels like razor blade steel is cast into ingots, which are subsequently forged to slabs & rolled in tandem strip mill.

The production of stainless steel begins with melting of ferrous scrap and ferroalloys in UHP Electric Arc Furnace, followed by secondary refining in AOD/VOD units. The liquid steel thus obtained, is cast into slabs in a continuous slab caster with Auto Mould Level Control (AMLC) System. JSL Stainless Ltd. produces stainless steel in 200, 300 & 400 series. On-going efforts of a dedicated R&D Team, along with Operations & Quality Assurance departments are constantly innovating in fields of cost reduction, product development and addition of niche products viz. Duplex Stainless Steel, Controlled expansion alloys like INVAR-36, Special Finish Cold Rolled Stainless Steel and Stainless Steels for critical applications.

Hot rolling comprises Hot Steckel Mill and Tandem Strip mill. The hot steckel mill comprises slab reheating walking beam furnace, 4 Hi reversing roughing mill, 4 Hi reversing Steckel Mill equipped with Hot Coilers on both sides and a down coiler. Slabs are rolled to hot rolled coils and plates. The mill is equipped with level-2 automaton system consisting of automatic hydraulic gap setting, roll bending system, automatic pass scheduling & mill setup, automatic sequencing, mill supervisory system and automatic gauge control. The mill is capable of rolling plates and coils up to 1250 mm width weighing up to 18MT.

The Tandem Strip mill comprises reheating furnace, 2-Hi roughing stand, five finishing stands and down coiler to hot roll stainless steel blooms into flat bars and narrow coils.

The present rolling capacity of both the mills put together is 720,000 TPA.

HR coils are cut to length, annealed and pickled to produce plates in HRAP No. 1 finish. For thickness 10.0mm and above, plates are directly produced from steckel mill, which are annealed and pickled to produce HRAP No. 1 finish plates.

The cold rolling mill complex comprises four units - CRD I, CRD II, CRD III & CRD IV. CRD I, CRD III & CRD IV comprise a combination of 20 Hi Sendzimer mills, annealing and pickling lines and various sophisticated associated equipment & processing lines to produce Cold Rolled Coils & Sheets with quality surface finishes, precise dimensional control and good flatness control in wider coils (>600mm width). The facilities at JSL Stainless Hisar are equipped to produce and supply material in 2D, 2B, No.3, No.4 and BA surface finishes. CRD II is engaged in production of precision strips in thinner sizes (0.05mm to 0.50mm thick) e.g. Razor Blade, other ferritic and Martensitic stainless steel.

The present installed capacity of cold rolled products is 1,50,000 TPA.

Coil buildup line is used to attach leader ends in hot rolled coils for increasing the overall yield of coils. It is also equipped with edge trimming to improve production for further operations

The Skin pass mill is designed and installed in dust proof housing. It is used to give cold rolled pass by polished groundwork roll on 2D finish dull material to convert to 2B bright surface finish. The mill is designed to meet requirements in 600 to 1600mm width coils in 0.40 to 3.00mm thickness.

Slitting lines are used to side trim the coils and cater the market requirements in smaller width coils with a thickness from 0.45mm to 6MM.

The Strip Grinding line is used to produce No.3, No.4 and some special finishes requiring grinding which is used for decorative purposes in architectural applications, restaurant equipment, dairy equipment, lifts, elevators etc.

The flying shearing line with Voss Levelers is used to produce sheets with good flatness, which is the first and foremost requirement of customers.

The annealing and pickling line is used to anneal and pickle Hot Rolled stainless and Cold Rolled stainless steel coils. The continuous annealing & pickling line is equipped with a neutral electrolyte tank for pickling by Ruthner process, using sodium sulphate for the neutral electrolyte, scanacon system for acid recovery and removal of metal content.

The bright annealing (BA) line at JSL is one of its kinds in India. The annealing in BA line is done in controlled atmosphere of cracked ammonia to avoid any oxidation of metal which ensures a bright finish called as BA finish.

JSL Stainless Ltd. is an exclusive producer of stainless razor blade steel in India. The microstructure of their strips is designed to optimize / facilitate hardening, sharpening & honing operations at customers end and to develop ideal characteristics for intended end applications. These are achieved with stringent quality checks utilizing modern and sophisticated testing equipment such as Metallurgical microscope with advanced Image Analyzer, digital microhardness tester, microprocessor controlled Tensile testing machine and Scanning Electron Microscope. Persistent R & D activity had led to improvements in quality of product enabling JSL, not only to cater to the Indian razor blade steel requirements but also to export a substantial quantity on a regular basis. The current capacity for precision strip production is 12,000 TPA.

JSL Stainless Ltd. has been supplying AISI 430 grade ferritic stainless steel coils & blanks to India Govt. Mint & Foreign mints for making coins on regular basis. To diversify its product range, coin blanking and associated processing facilities of world-class quality have been installed and commissioned.

The cold rolled and bright-annealed coils are processed at coin blanking lines. This comprise a blanking press, deburring machine, edge rimming machine, annealing furnace and polishing machines. Subsequently the coin blanks are inspected on Inspection Conveyors, then counted by counting machine and packed in drums for dispatch.

The punched out strips of AISI SS430 are by-products during production of coin blanks. These are aesthetically pleasing and elegant and have a vide variety of applications such as cable trays, kitchen racks, Paper Baskets etc.

In order to expand the business for coin blanks, an independent production line has been installed to produce high value copper-base non-ferrous alloys importantly cupro-nickels. The production facility includes induction melting, continuous horizontal strip casting, cold rolling, annealing, pickling and slitting. The installed melting and casting capacity is 6000T per annum. Apart from Cupro-Nickels, the unit can produce Aluminum-Bronze, Phosphorus Bronze, NickelSilver and Tin bearing copper for various engineering and jewellery applications. AluminumBronze along with Cupro-Nickel is used to manufacture duplex coins. At present JSL Stainless Ltd. is supplying the newly introduced Aluminum bronze with high value Copper based nonferrous alloys - Cupro Nickel duplex coin blanks of denomination of rs.10 to Govt. of India, Mint.

The R&D division at JSL Stainless Ltd., Hisar plays a pivotal role in retaining and consolidating company's leadership role in stainless steel business by continuous up-gradation of quality, processes & services and innovating development strategies to come up with new products.

In addition to the above, R&D Division closely interacts with reputed national and international laboratories/scientific institution/universities to avail expert services for critical investigations.

With the same theme as above, during MMMM-2012 Exhibition scheduled in Sept. 2012 in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, we can jointly plan an exclusive section/hall as “The Stainless Show”, where visitors should be able to get all information on the subject under one roof. Here business sessions for select visitors to clarify all queries could also be planned.

This would call for advance planning of the event with adequate publicity in industrial clusters across the country, involving local industry associations/ business forums and engineering institutions.

Office bearers of IIM Hisar Chapter agreed the proposal, in principle. It was indicated that the Marketing Development Group of JSL Stainless Ltd., based at N.Delhi, would be associated in this venture.

The visit to JSL Stainless Ltd. Hisar ended with thanks to JSL Stainless Ltd. and IIM Hisar Chapter for facilitating this visit.