Objective

To innovate, develop, transfer and standardise and provide specialised services such as Research and Development, Technology Transfer, consultancy and standards and quality to support the scientific and industrial growth and success in the areas of Metals, Minerals and Advanced Materials, by putting our experienced team of scientists and engineers and wealth of state-of-the art technology and facilities to work.

Mandate

The Laboratory envisions a progressive enhancement of its resources, generation and acquisition of 'Intellectual Property Assets' and strives to maximise the business of R&D meeting the customer requirements through maintenance of sustainable growth

Areas of R&D Activities

Industrial Processes     

Mineral Beneficiaiton, Extraction of Metals, Development of Refractories / Ceramics, Process Optimisation and Modelling;

Engineering Materials

Synthesis and Development of Materials, Materials Forming Processes, Materials Characterisation

Resource and Environment Conservation

Waste Utilization, Secondary Metal Processing, Corrosion and Protection, Component Integrity Evaluation (CIEP) / Remaining Life Assessment (RLA), Pollution Control;

Scientific and Technical Services

Chemical Analysis, Material Characterisation, Testing and Evaluation, Failure Analysis, Engineering Consultancy, Calibration, Standard Reference Materials, Training & Certification, Hall Marking, R & D Management and IP acquisition

Field of Interest

 Research and Development, Technology Development & transfer, Consultancy, Scientific and Technical Services in the area of Minerals, Metals & Materials

 Specialised Expertise

• Characterisation of minerals and ores. Methodologies for beneficiation of precious metal bearing lean ores. Design of transportable mineral characterisation facility and beneficiation plant for precious metal bearing lean ores.

• Bio-technologies for mineral beneficiaiton and metal extraction. Solvent extraction / exchange technologies for the extraction of trace metals. Improved technologies for common metals and development of alloys for specific applications.

• Technologies for nuclear grade magnesium metal and development of magnesium alloys.  Innovative technologies for titanium extraction, and development of titanium alloys.

• Application of Mechano chemistry concepts for controlling materials processing and improving the materials properties.

• Advanced manufacturing techniques like technology of squeeze casting, and bulk amorphous alloys and wide amorphous ribbons.

• A comprehensive expertise based on property optimisation by surface modifications and coating. A comprehensive expertise base on surface characterisation.

• Single window based technology for engineering critical analysis. A web based comprehensive database on remaining life assessment and extension. A portable mechanical property determination equipment. Comprehensive characterisation of concrete materials and structures by non-destructive testing and evaluation. Electro-magnetic acoustic transducer for non-contraction destructive testing.

• Computational facility and expertise base for modelling, signal analysis and risk analysis

• Nano particle technology through bio mimetic route

• Prevention of material degradation and environmental pollution.

• Water testing and evaluation laboratory water and effluent treatment.

• Pursue research in the area of micro- and nano- size bubble generation by novel methods and its application to flotation and waste treatment processes.

• Thermodynamic Modelling and Computational Thermodynamics.

• On nano-synthesis through electrochemical techniques and attrition milling.

• Materials and processing methods for intermediate temperature fuel cells.

• Certified Reference Materials

• Hall Marking

 Scientific and Technical Services

Corrosion and its control: 

XRF, DRS AAS, XRD, UVРspectrometer, Poximate Analyzer, C&S Determinator Polarization Behavior, Salt Spray Test chamber, Impedance

System, Stress Corrosion, Inhibitors.

Iron-making Raw Material Characterization :  

Reducibility, Thermal Degradation, Softening Characterization, Linder Test Apparatus, Ash Fusion Furnace.

Materials Characterization : 

Optical, SEM, TEM, AFM, DTA/DTG, DSC, Pneumatic, Thermal, and Electrical Properties Measurement.

Non-Destructive Testing and Evaluation: 

Ultrasonic Flow Detector, Acoustic Emission, Portable Hardness Tester, Magna-Flux, In-situ Metallography, Spectrum Analyser.

Mechanical Properties :  

CREEP Testing, Tensile/Bending, Fatigue, Impact, Servo-hydraulic Testing.

Calibration : 

Temperature upto 1200C, Pressure: Pneumatic: upto 10 bar Hydraulic upto 25 bar. (i) Electric Parameter + 1000V; +10A; 30mohm; 330

Mineral Beneficiation : Bench and pilot plant scale 

Hydrocyclone, Perm Roll Magnetic Separator, Bartlex-Mozley Unit, Flotation Cell, Particle Size Analyzer, Image Analyzer, Mineral Microstructure Characterization and Mechanical Behavior.

Pyrometallurgical stems  

Submerged Arc Furnace (50 KVA), Rotary Kiln, other Melting Units (Arc, Induction, Resistance Furnaces), 60 kg Vacuum Furnace     

Materials Shaping:  

Rolling Mill, Forging Unit, Wire Drawing Unit Extrusion Press

Pilot Plant: 

Mineral Beneficiation Facilities (0.5е t/hr), Vertical Retort Direct Reduction Unit (300 tpa), 500 KVA Submerged Arc Furnace, Sea Nodules Processing plant

Computational Modeling and Simulation: 

CFD Codes, Phoenix, Fluent, FEM Codes; ANSYS & ABACUS, Numerical scientific softwares: Mathematica, NAG Library
PARAM 10000 with Adv. Version of Pheonix with parallel processing features, dedicated Server: email internet, LAN, Gateway etc.