The Role of the National Metallurgical Laboratory in Research & Development of Light Metal Industry in India

Nijhawan, B R (1961) The Role of the National Metallurgical Laboratory in Research & Development of Light Metal Industry in India. In: Symposium on Light Metal Industry In India, Feb. 14-17, NML, Jamshedpur.

[img]PDF
5Mb

Abstract

RESEARCH in metals and their alloys now presents a wide spectrum ranging from experiments on laboratory bench scale based on speculations arising out of applied or fundamental hypotheses to organized pilot plant scale Investigations and heavily financed industrial prototype trials. On one end of this spectrum lies a purely acade- mic appeal answering human insatiable curiosity and on the other end is research in applied fields and between the two prevails a broad-based field in which the role of a young industrial laboratory, such as the National Metallurgical Laboratory, covers diverse research and development fields in ferrous and non-ferrous metals including light metals and their family of alloys ; such development work in the latter fields has, of necessity, been pioneering in scope so far at the National Meta-llurgical Laboratory located in the Steel Town of Jamshedpur and yet considerable ground has been covered. Whilst the metallurgy of heavier metals rapidly develo- ped with the recovery of those relatively easier to smelt, the lighter metals such as aluminium & magnesium could he produced only in the 19th century. The Second World War in its train gave a tremendous stimulus to the development of light metals and their alloys both in pro-duction targets and range of service requirements.In the case of India, if the hard core of the Second Five Year Plan has centred round the development of iron and steel industry, the industrial growth of light metals and their alloys may well claim this place of pride during the Third Five Year Plan whose outlay has now been more or less fully formulated.In the field of aluminium, annual target capacity of 82.500 tons by 1965-66 is expected to be achieved and it is now being discussed that it may further be stepped up to over a lakh tons of aluminium per annum. The production of magnesium -a metal as light as it is important in this supersonic age, does not yet figure in our Third Five Year Plan-a lacuna which must be rectified at the earliest.

Item Type:Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Official URL/DOI:http://eprints.nmlindia.org/3164
Uncontrolled Keywords:Non-ferrous metals, Aluminium, Magnesium
Divisions:Director Office
ID Code:3164
Deposited By:Sahu A K
Deposited On:05 Jul 2011 15:02
Last Modified:26 Dec 2011 11:53
Related URLs:

Repository Staff Only: item control page