RITES approves online welding process for Alloyed NCC Rails

August 3, 2021 7:05 pm

The recent introduction of Production-linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Specialty Steel will have far reaching positive impacts on the domestic steel industry in general.

The scheme will also act as a booster to ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ where the country is primarily enhancing domestic productions capabilities to be self-sufficient in fulfilling its steel requirements. The PLI scheme for specialty steels will encourage new technological interventions and innovations in the domestic steel sector.

In a new development, the rail certifying agency of Indian Railways, RITES approved the newly developed online welding process for the alloyed Rails for production of 260 meters rails at Bhilai Steel Plant. The development of this unique welding and post weld processing technology was done jointly by BSP and RDCIS, Ranchi and was subjected to a series of stringent processing controls across many phases before being approved by the certifying agency, RITES.

The alloy rails commonly mentioned as NCC (Nickel – Chromium – Copper) Rails for the three alloys added, was the joint development efforts of RDCIS – SAIL, RDSO and IIT Kanpur under the aegis of Government’s Technology Mission on Rail Safety (TMRS). Over the years of field trials at the coastal and corrosion prone railway network, this rail grade has shown remarkable performance over the years.

Commending the team effort of RDCIS & BSP, Bhilai N Banerjee, ED (RDCIS), SAIL said that the challenge of undesirable hardness and microstructure in the Heat Affected Zone, was overcome with ingenuity and research, both at the laboratory scale and the plant scale. Director, Bhilai Steel Plant, A Dasgupta had earlier expressed his satisfaction and congratulated the team of BSP and RDCIS engineers, saying that it was another proud moment for Bhilai Rails in the presence of A Kumar, ED (Works) and many senior officers of BSP. He was confident that this development would lead to many more new rail grades in the coming times.

With this development, BSP will supply these rails in 260 meters welded panel with acceptable weld joint. The NCC rails guarantee a life of more than twice compared to normal rails under a corrosive environment.