SAIL, the country?s largest public sector steelmaker, has manufactured a special grade steel to make the world?s largest magnet plate for India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)?an entity located in Pottipuram, Tamil Nadu. The INO project is meant to study atmospheric neutrinos produced by natural cosmic rays interacting with the earth?s upper atmosphere.

The 12th Five-Year Plan has identified INO as one of India?s mega science projects. The departments of atomic energy, and science & technology have earmarked R1,350 crore for its implementation. This project could have been scuttled if SAIL had not accepted the challenge of making its ?steel heart?, which needed to meet the magnetic, chemical, physical and mechanical parameters, tested as per ultrasonic standards, said BK Jha, general manager (products) of Research Development Centre for Iron & Steel, Ranchi, SAIL?s R&D wing.

He said the soft iron magnetic plate, branded as SAILMAG, is not commercially available in India. Only a company called Carpenter Technology Corporation makes this particular grade of steel in the West.

Sanjay Malhotra, head of the electromagnetic application section in the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), said, it used to procure the steel in small quantities for the INO project from Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd (Midhani), which imported for BARC. But Midhani does not have the capability to supply the material in large quantities and at a reasonable cost. The entire project would have been non-viable without SAIL?s participation.

With the Bhilai Steel Plant successfully rolling out the 56 mm-thick plates, it was confirmed that INO, the country?s largest experimental particle physics projects ever undertaken, would be on, Malhotra said.

What is INO?

INO?s study of atmospheric neutrinos is akin to observing the galaxy through an optical telescope. It is an ambitious and challenging venture because neutrinos are elementary particles with little mass and have no electric charge. It can rival light in speed and pass through ordinary matter, undisturbed and undetected.

The complexity of this mega science project is so daunting that no single scientific institute in India has the ability or resources to do it alone. About 100 scientists from around 26 institutions (research institutes, IITs and universities) have started collaborating to give it a practical shape.

In 2005, the INO team presented a detailed project report to the department of atomic energy and the department of science & technology.

The project is being executed by BARC in association with over two dozen institutes, including Mumbai?s Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and Kolkata?s Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre.

A steel heart

At the core of this project is a steel heart to which SAIL has made its contribution. It is basically an iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector for studying neutrinos and comprises 50,000 tonne of magnetised iron plates arranged in stacks with gaps in between, where glass resistive plate chambers (RPCs) are inserted as active neutrino detectors. The detectors are intended to address a key question in the field of neutrino physics. That will in turn guide scientists to the correct theory, beyond existing knowledge in particle physics. It will also study how matter behaved at extremely high energies as it existed in the early stages of the evolving universe.

The calorimeter will be placed in an underground laboratory located in a 4,300 feet-deep cavern in the Bodi West Hills region of Theni district in Tamil Nadu. Approach to this underground vault will be through a two-km underground tunnel inside the rocky mountain. This will house the world?s largest magnet, about four times larger than the 12,500 tonne-magnet housed in the Compact Muon Solenoid Detector at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research.

Malhotra said the iron calorimeter would be made of steel plates with metallurgy closer to iron containing magnetic property. This particular kind of steel does not find mention in ASTM, which sets the global benchmark standards for industrial, construction and mechanical steels.

The plates, according to Malhotra, must have the desired properties of high magnetic susceptibility, low retentivity, high magnetic permeability and ability to withstand very high levels of magnetic fields without saturation. These stringent property requirements make the soft iron magnetic plates very special and very difficult to make, as this necessitates a high level of expertise, precision and knowledge.

What did SAIL do?

Jha, and his team through extensive laboratory-based studies at RDCIS developed the soft iron plates with the specified mechanical and magnetic properties.? While lab trials for soft iron plates were carried out at RDCIS, Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) accepted the challenge of industrial trial. The final strategy and modalities for the industrial trial were frozen after detailed discussions on requirements with officials from BARC, TIFR, SAIL, RDCIS and BSP.

A trial heat with low carbon level was made, and working under strict quality control norms as guided by the RDCIS team and in the presence of BARC scientists, BSP rolled out the 56-mm soft iron magnetic plate, branded as SAILMAG. With this, yet another niche steel brand took birth at SAIL.

According to Jha, since 1959, BSP has been rolling out products like plates, rails, crane rails, heavy structural, TMT rods and others, crucial to India?s infrastructure development. It is also poised to make rails for metro railways. But the new product would aid India?s scientific research.

SAIL?s outlay for R&D has gone up to 1% of the gross turnover following the international benchmark, up from 0.3% earlier.

SAIL?s R&D is now integrated with the company?s business and operational goals. The R&D master plan would be implemented on centralised and de-centralised projects consisting of high-impact projects (HIP) and technology-mission projects (TMP).

Projects that are of common interest to all integrated steel plants, like coal and coke beneficiation, pelletisation and environmental projects would come under HIP. Development and acquisition of new technologies of strategic importance would be pursued through TIM. An official said SAIL?s R1.8-lakh-crore expansion plan, to raise capacity from 14 million tonne to 60 million tonne by 2020, is integrated with its R&D goals.