Components made at Salem Steel Plant to 'power' Chandrayan 2

Salem: Salem Steel Plant has every reason to be proud as the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launches Chandrayan 2, India’s second lunar exploration mission , on Monday. The reason? Steel coils used in the cryogenic rocket engines are made at the plant. It’s also a major boost to the Make in India initiative.

“We indigenously developed the Russian grade ICSS-1218-321(12X18H10T) austenitic stabilized stainless steel, which is used in the construction of the cryogenic rocket engines that are made at ISRO,” said a senior Salem Steel Plant official. Talking to TOI, he said the product was the result of collaboration between scientists at the Liquid Propulsion System Centre (LPSC) of ISRO and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) team at the plant. “They successfully rolled a trial batch of stainless steel coils.”

The official said electro slag remelted and forged slabs conforming to ICSS-1218-321 austenitic stainless steel slabs provided by ISRO were successfully hot rolled at the plant’s hot rolling steckel mill. “This hot rolled coil of 4mm thickness was then cold rolled to 2.3mm thickness and used in the cryogenic engine (CE20) divergent of the Chandrayan mission.”

The CE20 engine of ISRO has a double walled chamber, where 2.3/0.6mm thick 321 stainless steel sheets are used. In this chamber, stainless steel sheets provided by Salem Steel Plant are used. In addition to this, another five engines are manufactured by using ICSS-1218-321 sheets made at the Salem plant.

ISRO authorities said the stainless steel sheets from SAIL, Salem, were better than the international quality and met aerospace requirements, which called for stringent specifications, superior surface finish and close tolerances.

With this major breakthrough, SAIL and LPSC authorities are optimistic that the present initiative would be replicated for ISRO’s further requirements in grades like 304L and 316 Ti.

“The culmination of this successful trial processing of 321 grade stainless steel lays foundation for a sustained collaboration between ISRO and SAIL to develop and process other aerospace grades of stainless steel for the space launch vehicle components at Salem Steel Plant,” the official said.