1.

Introduction
Alloy Steels Plant
ASP, Durgapur, the only Alloy Steels Plant is SAIL is bestowed with modern
technology of EAF. It has an installed capacity of 2.4 Lakh tons per annum of
liquid steel & 1.78 lakh tons of salable steel. ASP has emphasized on producing
wide range of more than 400 grades of steels round the year. Our products meet
stringent demands of customers within India & abroad. Products used in
defense , Railways, nuclear power, automobile, aerospace, chemicals,
engineering industries are our major gains. These products meet international
quality standards such as major grades in major fields mentioned above.
ASP has become one of the plants in the country to be certified to all the three
International Standards for
Quality /(ISO-9001),for
Environment
Management(ISO-14001) .The certificate covers quality systems of all
operational, maintenance, service units besides purchase systems Training &
Marketing functions spreading over all stockyards Located all over the country.
Alloy Steel products are wide ranging as described in the book in different
pages subsequently
The profile of the book ASP an Overview is divided broadly into three
sections as detailed below
Section I
These are major departments like Steel Melting Shop, Continuous Casting
Shop, Refractory Engg. Deptt., Forge Shop, Blooming & Billet Mill, Roll
Design & Roll Section, Conditioning Shop, Heat Treatment & Finishing Shop,
Plate Mill, Research & control Laboratory .
Section II
These is one more broader section covering Utilities & Services. Main among
these are Total quality Management, Mechanical Repair Shop, Electrical Repair
Shop, Projects, Traffic & ALRS, Electronics &Telecom , C & IT, Power
Distribution & General Maintenance. This part functions like blood stream of
the plant. Safety Engineering & Environment Management Department,
Shipping & PPCD (Plant Production & Control Department).

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Section III
This includes PRO, Personal & Administration, Finance & Accounts, Marketing
& Materials
Management Department & encompasses major role in
maintaining essential services. Administrative control & flow of Information &
materials required essentially to the plant.
BACKGROUND NOTE ON ALLOY STEELS PLANT

2. Background
Alloy Steels Plant (ASP), a unit of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) was
commissioned in January 1965 at Durgapur in Burdwan district of West Bengal
with initial capacity of 100,000 tonnes per annum (TPA) of liquid steel, with
major facilities such as Steel Melting Shop (SMS) with Electric Arc Furnaces
(EAF), Blooming & Billet Mill, Forge Shop, Conditioning Shop, Bar Mill, Plate
& Sheet Mill and Heat Treatment & Finishing Shop. ASP was the first major
producer of alloy & special steel in the eastern region.
The capacity of the plant was increased to 1,60,000 TPA of liquid steel in 1985
and thereafter, further enhanced to 2,60,000 TPA of liquid steel in 1989.
Subsequently, in 2007, facilities at SMS were upgraded with installation of
Argon Oxygen Decarburising (AOD) unit along with EAF no. 8 for enhancing
stainless steel production.

3 Existing facilities:
Alloy Steels Plant has following existing facilities:

3.1 Steel Melting Shop

a) Electric Arc Furnaces (EAF): 3 nos with a capacity of 50 T each.
b) Secondary Steel Refining units :
- Ladle Furnace : 60 T
- Vacuum Arc Degassing unit (VAD) : 60 T
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- Vacuum Oxygen Decarburising unit (VOD) : 60 T

- Argon Oxygen Decarburising unit (AOD) converter : 60 T
Mills & finishing units:
c) Blooming & Billet Mill :
- Fuel-fired Soaking Pits : 12 nos
- Blooming (roughing) Mill 2 high : 900 mm
- Billet Mill 2 high : 700 mm (1 no)
- Finishing stands 2 high : 650 mm (2 nos)
- Hot scarfing and shearing facilities
d) Forge Shop :
- 2000 T Oil Hydraulic Forging Press : 1 no
- Pneumatic Hammers : 1x5 T, 1x2 T
- Charging machines & manipulators
- Heating &dispositioning Furnaces
e) Conditioning Shops I & II:
- Heat treatment Furnaces
- Surface Grinding and Shot Blasting Machines
- Straightening and Cutting facilities
f) Heat Treatment & finishing shop:
- Annealing Furnaces
- Heat Treatment Furnaces
- Cutting & Straightening facilities
g) Plate Mill
- Walking beam re-heating furnace
- 3 High non-reversing Mill
- Annealing Furnace
- Shear for sizing & stretcher leveler for straightening
2.0

Product-mix
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ASP has a product portfolio of nearly 400 grades conforming to national/

international standards and meets the varied requirement of Defence, Nuclear
Power, Aerospace, Railways & Automobiles etc.
The product profile comprises of billets/blooms, concast slabs, forgings &
value-added products like rolls, discs, die-blocks etc. Crankshaft-quality steels,
ball bearing steels, high-quality stainless steel for kitchenware/process
industries and coloured stainless steel gift items in small quantity are also some
of ASPs products. ASP is the first plant in India to manufacture creep resistant
steels used in boiler manufacturing industries, conventional & nuclear power
plants, aerospace etc. ASP also produces Hadfield steel, which is extremely
tough and non-magnetic alloy steel used in coal and steel industry.
B.

Modernisation& Expansion

As a capacity enhancement of BBM, number of fuel pits has been increased

from 6 to 12 during the period 1998 to 2007 in phases.
In 2007, Steel Melting Shop (SMS) was upgraded with commissioning of Argon
Oxygen De-carbonization (AOD) unit & new EAF no.8 for augmenting
stainless steel production.
In 2008, the Hydraulic Press (2000 T) at Forge Shop has been revamped to
increase productivity by reducing rejection of finished material and substantial
saving in electric energy.

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ASP Technology - State of Art

SECTION-I

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3.2 Continuous Casting Shop

3.3 FORGE SHOP

Forge Shop is one of the shaping unit of Alloy Steels Plant where ingots and
blooms are converted to finished forged product through the press and hammer
operation. Ingots are received from Steel Melting Shop and blooms are received
from various shops as per production requirement. Ingots and Blooms are
heated in reheating furnaces. Sometimes smaller size ingots are cogged in 5T
hammer.
In Forge Shop, there are six reheating furnaces in the Press bay and two
reheating furnaces in the hammer bay. There are three dispositioning furnaces
for isothermal annealing for normalizing of critical grades. Some reheating
furnaces are dual fired using both coke oven gas and furnace oil while other
reheating furnaces can run with coke oven gas only. Out of the three
dispositioning furnaces two are operated with gas while one can be operated
electrically.
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All finished forged materials are inspected in forge shop. Dimension checking,
surface defect and internal defect checking is done in forge shop by inspection
wing of R & C Lab. After inspection, only confirming materials are dispatched
to Heat Treatment Shop for further heat treatment and finishing.
Product mix of Forge Shop
2000 T Press----270 mm to 770 mm.
Press products are rounds, V die rounds, squares, flats, step forging, disc and
ring.
5T hammer----100 mm to 270mm.
Hammer products are rounds, squares and flats.
There is a 2T hammer for forging of test samples for different products.

3.4 BLOOMING & BILLET MILL

Blooming & Billet Mill is the major rolling mill in Alloy Steels Plant for hot
rolling of various alloy steels incorporating strict dimensional control . The
various inputs are ingots, continuous cast blooms and slabs and double
conversion blooms received from Steel Melting Shop, DSP and other sources.
The major facilities are twelve numbers fuel fired soaking pits run either by
coke oven gas or oil , roughing and finishing stands 900 Mill , 700 Mill , 650
Mill , hot scarfing machine , hot shears like 1200 T bloom shear and 500 T
billet shear , hot saws and cooling bed.
Metals are heated to rolling temperature as per the heating standard and then
cogged to intermediate stage or finished to blooms, billets or slabs as per
production requirements. After rolling the finished materials are dispatched to
Conditioning Department for further processing and the revert scrap which is
collected separately according to their scrap class is sent to Steel Melting Shop.
Product mix of Blooming & Billet Mill
Major Products:

RCS Blooms from 160 mm2 to 340 mm2

RCS Billets from 90 mm2 to 150mm2
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Rounds from 80 dia to 205 dia

Flats & Slabs as per mill capability

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3.5 CONDITIONING DEPARTMENT

Conditioning Department is the nerve centre of Alloy Steels Plant.
Whatever material is being produced in the plant are passed through this
department except some forgings which do not require any conditioning.
Conditioning is a process by which materials are made suitable for further
rolling or forging to finished goods. The following are the processes carried out
in the department :
1. Disposition of the hot rolled blooms/billets/rounds/flats eg., air cooling,
slowcooling in boxes
covered with refractory linning, furnace cooling etc.
2. Swing grinding : grinding by swing frame grinding machine in a zigzag or
100% grinding.
3. Slab grinding : grinding of slabs, flats, blooms by zigzag/sopt/100% gringing.
4. New auto billet grinding : 100% grinding of billets and blooms.
5. Auto slab-cum bloom grinding : for grinding of concast slabs and blooms.
6. Heat treatment : only annealing and dispositioning treatment is given in two
twin hearth furnaces.
7. Straightening : for billets and rounds.
8. Saw cutting and Gas cutting.
9. Inspection and Testing including ultrasonic testing.
10.Painting and colour-coding.
11.Packing /Bundling.
12.Stacking.
The various equipments used in the department are as follows:
1. 12 nos. of small & 10 nos. of big cooling boxes for slow cooling.
2. 2 nos. of Boigie Hearth Furnaces of 35 t capacity.
3. 12 nos. swing frame grinders.
4. 3 nos. slab grinding machines.
5. 2 nos. new auto billet grinding mahines.
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6. 2 nos. auto-cum-bloom grinding machines.

7. 2 nos. straightening machines.
8. 4 nos. of saw cutting, 2 sets of oxycutting and 3 sets of hand torch cutting
machines to take care of entire cutting load.
Types of materials processed are mainly alloy steels eg. Carbon constructional,
alloy constructional, tool steel, ball bearing steel, stainless steels, creep resistant
steels, spring steels, the sizes are ranging from 80 mm round to 200 mm round
and 100 mm RCS to 340 mm RCS. Almost 80% of materials are shipeed to
external customers and balance to other departments for further processing.

3.6 HEAT TREATMENT AND FINISHING DEPARTMENT

After the steels materials are rolled or forged, a sizeable amount is subjected to
different types of heat treatment for achieving required mechanical and physical
properties. Following types of heat treatment are carried out in the department :
1. Annealing : sub-critical annealing, iso-annealing, spheroidising annealing, N2
annealing are done depending upon customers requirement.
2. Normalizing : to achieve homogenized structure.
3. Hardening.
4. Tempring.
Equipments used to carry out heat treatment are as follows :
1. 5 nos. of twin hearth bogie hearth furnaces of 35 T capacity for doing annealing
and normalizing treatment.
2. 7 nos. of single hearth bogie hearth furnaces of 10 T capacity for doing
annealing/normalizing/hardening/tempering treatment.
3. 2 nos. of semigantry crane of 10 T capacity used to load/unload small capacity
furnaces as well as quenching.
4. 2 nos. water quenching tank and 1 no. Oil quenching tank of 70,000 liter
capacity.

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Other than heat treatment, following processes are also carried out in the
department:
1. Straightening: 2 nos. rotary straightener and 1 no. Bumper straightener is there,
to take care of the total straightening load.
2. 4 nos. of band saw cutting machine.
3. Inspection and testing including ultrasonic testing machine.
4. Hardness testing machine.
5. Painting/colour coding.
6. Packing/bundling.
7. Stacking
Types of material heat treated are mainly creep-resistant grades, alloy
constructional grades, tool steels etc.

3.7 PLATE MILL

The existing PLATE MILL complex of Alloy steels Plant, Durgapur,is designed
to produce hot rolled stainless and non stainless plates.
The reheating facility in Plate Mill consists of 2 nos. of Walking beam furnaces
heated gas/oil.The only rolling stand is a 3 hi- 800/640/800 mm size with 2000
mm barrel length which is followed by a hot-roller-leveller and cross cut shear
for shearing upto 12 mm thick plates.

1 no. Of of Roller hearth Annealing Furnace with arrangements for simple air
cooling ,air blast quenching and water quenching facilities are available.After
annealing of the plates are stretcher levelled in a 300/800 T Stretcher
leveller,then they are resquared in a guillotine shear for packing after carrying
out in line inspection for each and every plates on both surfaces .

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3.8 MRS DEPARTMENT

Mechanical Repair Shop caters to the need of different production shops &
service departments by manufacturing & fabricating different type of spares as
per requirement in MRS there are mainly three sections
1) Machine Shop 2) Fabrication unit

3) Fitting unit

Machine Shop
In machine shop there are variety of machine tools viz.
Heavy duty lathes

Max length of workpiece

Max wt carrying capacity

LC-125 LATHE A02

05

15

RUSSIAN LATHE A03

05

05

HHD LATHE A15

10

10

POREBA LATHE A16

05

10

Beside this machine shop has Vertical Turret lathe, H / Boring, Precision lathes,
Milling m/c Shapes, Drill machines , Copy Planning machine, Planning
machine & Band Saws. Heavy duty lathes are mostly involved in machining of
CRM Roll, Tandem Roll, Reversing Roll, Silicon Rolls as per requirement of
marketing department. Rest machines are utilized for manufacturing spares as
per requirement of different departments.

Fabrication Unit
In fabrication unit mainly are welding, gas cutting is done for fabrication spares
as per requirement . Besides these plasma cutting is also done for cutting
stainless steel plates of thickness up to 32 mm.
Bending machines are also used for fabrication ducts of various sizes as per
requirement. Major fabricated items are H/ Hood, Tundish cover, Cooling gland,
Brick retainer plate Ducts etc.

Fitting unit
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This unit is involved in overhauling, different assemblies &sub assemblies of

different equipments of Plant. In this section two Hydraulic presses are installed
to ease the manual labour.
Two EOT cranes having capacity 15 & 10 tons operated by remote
control in two bays for loading & unloading of jobs.

4. ACTIVITIES OF SAFETY ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

1.

Reporting & recording of IOW case in relevant forum Organising&

coordinating Housekeeping inspection in
operation,
services & office
building through inspection
Committee.

2.

Generating safety awareness among the workmen ( both

Contractors and Regular) & executives through Safety Training & Interaction.

3.

Inspection & reporting the unsafe conditions & act inside the
plant daily basis.Plant beautification &dejungling of plant surrounding as
as peripherywall area for plant security.

well

4.

Investigation, recording and reporting of fire incident, accident, near miss

cases & serious incident inside the plant to ASP Management & Corporate
office, SSO.
5.
Interaction & meeting with legal body and statutory authority.
6.
Coordination with CISF / Fire wing of ASP for fire safety throughout the
plant

5. PRODUCTION PLANNING & CONTROL

DEPARTMENT(PPCD)
Introduction :
PPCD is working as the nodal agency in the plant for executing orders received
from various customers and coordinate between various agencies for smooth
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operation of the organization as per desired level and dispatch of correct

materials to valuable customers..,
Background :
Since inception of ASP, PPCD is functioning to plan the production of various
units.
Function of PPCD :
The main function of Production Planning and Control Department is to
execute customers orders in terms of quantity , quality and delivery
schedule received from Marketing as per monthly dispatch plan worked-out
after discussion with DGM(MKT-SRM/AS)
The planning function starts with making of the Annual Performance Plan
in compliance with Corporate Plan which lay down in clear terms at the
beginning of the year, the yearly and monthly targets of production and
service units.
Detail Dispatch Plan is made on monthly basis in consultation with
DGM(Mkt-SRM/AS) based on available orders and on that basis monthly
Production Plans of various shops are made.The monthly targets are then
broken into weekly and daily schedules and day to day monitoring is
done to check any deviation.
PPCD is in constant touch with Marketing and all operational units to monitor
the orders received from Marketing are executed by planning and
scheduling production. In case of urgency of any order, necessary change in the
monthly plan is done in consultation with Marketing and Operation units..
The Department brings out various manuals and reports , as a part of
Management Information Systems. The Annual performance plan and Annual
operational statistics is also made and distributed by PPCD.
PPCD is engaged in developing Special Products maintaining close liaison with
Marketing, RCL, FAD & Operation Departments Through Contract review.
Monitoring of semi finished and finished inventory and application to various
orders is also done by PPCD

6. POWER DISTRIBUTION
Alloy Steel Plant, Durgapur has a power distribution that efficiently handles all
the power needs required by various mills and shops. It receives power at the
Main Receiving Substation (MRS) from the Durgapur Steel Plant which
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manages power requirements from NSPCL and DVC. The ASP main receiving
substation is well equipped with insulators, Oil Circuit Breakers, Gas Circuit
Breakers, transformers etc. The major recipient of power from the ASP Main
Receiving Substation is the Electric Arc Furnace in the Steel Melting Shop
(SMS) where one can have a look at the Vacuum Circuit Breakers, ABB and
MBB.
The mills area requires a lower voltage of 6.6 kV and thus a step down
transformer of 33kV/6.6kV is used to meet these requirements. The BBM, HTF,
Plate Mill and the Forge Shop receive power at this reduced voltage of 6.6kV
from this substation. Capacitor banks are installed to improve power factor of
the power. Transmission is carried out through underground cables unlike
overhead transmission line. Various transmission line components like
Connectors, Cables, Switchesetc can be viewed at the store of BBM and SMS.

7. TRAFFIC & AUTO LOCO REPAIR SHOP

Traffic & ALRS are maintaining different type of equipments which are used
for different purpose
Providing all types of transport service as per plant requirement.
Receiving incoming material through Rail and dispatching the material through
Rail.
Maintenance of the rail tracks & rolling stocks includes regular servicing,shutdown & breakdown jobs
Maintenance of the above equipments includes regular servicing,shut-down &
b/d jobs.
The jobs generally performed are Changing of engine,gearbox,leaf spring
assly,traction motor & generator(for loco),brake parts,propeller shaft,wheel hub
etc.
Rectification of of hydraulic circuit ( lifting ,tilting& steering cylinders,
hydraulic pump,hydraulic motor,hoses etc).
Rectification of electrical circuit( horn,battery,starter motor,alternator etc)

CONCLUSION
This training has proved to be beneficial to us since we had a first time exposure
of so many field visits watching theoretical concepts applied to real life
situation. A systematic procedure of conversion of the input into a desired
output is achieved through a series of ordered processes. It was a delight to
observe the heavy machines working with accuracy and precision, how various
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processes hydraulic, pneumatic, and automation working to together to

accomplish a common objective. Each operation is handled with high accuracy
and precision. It was good to see how safety was given the first priority. It was a
nice experience to see the healthy relations of the employees, workers,
engineers and the managers. The fifteen days have enlightened us to a great
extent and clear our incertitude. Overall, the vocational training was a success
and helped us to move forward with full of ambition.

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