India has joined a select group of nations in developing high purity aeronautical grade of titanium for space and defence applications.
This was disclosed here to reporters by Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister V.K. Saraswat, after inaugurating the 65th annual technical meeting of the Indian Institute of Metals (IIM) at Shamirpet near here on Sunday. He said the technology was developed by the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) and transferred to Kerala Metals and Minerals Ltd which was setting up a 500-tonne year capacity plant. The product produced by KMML would in turn be converted into a finished product by MIDHANI (Mishra Dhatu Nigam) for use in space and defence applications.
DMRL director G. Malkondiah said the technology was developed after two-decade-long research.
M. Narayana Rao, Chairman and Managing Director, MIDHANI said the newly developed titanium was an import substitution product and only four other countries — United States, Russia, Japan and Kyrgyzstan had the knowhow to produce aeronautical grade titanium.
Steel for missiles
Dr. Saraswat said DMRL had also developed special steel for missiles and space components. Mr. Narayana Rao, who is the president of IIM, urged metallurgists to develop new and innovative materials with improved design for the products to be competitive. He said that reduce, re-use and recycle should be the watchwords.
Later, Dr. Saraswat presented IIM awards to scientists for their distinguished services for research and education in the field of metallurgy.
