Did you know that the steel used in the upcoming Gaganayan project, the first indigenous manned mission of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to space has been supplied by Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP)? According a statement, it has supplied a total of 30.5 tonne of maraging steel.
Maraging steel is special quality steel containing nickel, cobalt, molybdenum, titanium and aluminium and is manufactured through vacuum melting process. Rolling of maraging steel requires very stringent process parameters, it said.
Gautam Banerjee, ED (Works) of RSP, a unit of SAIL flagged off the plates in a function organised at the Plate Mill department on Saturday. The plates rolled from 14 slabs were the first lot of the total order quantity. Maraging steel plates rolled in RSP were also used in the recently launched Chandrayan-II
Generally, any steel with higher strength will have low ductility and vice versa. But the significance of maraging steel is that it has got very high strength (to the tune of 5-6 times of mild steel) along with good ductility. Maraging steel is being used for the launch vehicle rocket motor casing and for other different defence applications. These maraging steel plates rolled in RSP were also used in the recently launched Chandrayan-II, it said.
