VOCATIONAL TRAINING

Report on Casting, Forging, Heat Treatment &

Machining

HEAVY ENGINEERING CORPORATION

FFP, HMBP & HMTP

Submitted by :-

AMAN ANKUR TOPPO

Diploma Mechanical Engineering

Semester 5th
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I sincerely express my Engineers & operators of HEC with whom

I interacted for their guidance and knowledge for increasing my

knowledge and understanding of an organization.

I am very thankful to the various departments In-charge and technicians

for helping me to clear my concepts about the plant and providing me

with required information.

I am also thankful to my group-mates AMAR PALIYA, ANKIT

TOPPO for accompanying me in training period.

Introduction
Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) is solely owned
organization by Government of India, established in Ranchi in the Year
1958 & inaugurated by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru. It is largest integrated
engineering complex in the country with excellent design, engineering
and manufacturing base. The Company is engaged in the manufacture
and supply of capital equipment machine tools and spares needed for
core sector industries.
HEC has made a valuable contribution in the development of
industrial infrastructure of the country. It consists of three major
manufacturing, project and consultancy service division namely:

• Foundry Forge Plant

• Heavy Machine Building Plant
• Heavy Machine Tools Plant

❖ Foundry Forge Plant (FFP)

FFP feeds casting & forgings to the other two plants, i.e. Heavy Machine
Building Plant and Heavy Machine Tools Plant. In addition, FFP supplies heavy
castings & forging to other customers. With an annual production capacity of
44,000 tonnes, plant area of 13,16,930 m2 and 76,000 tones of installed
machinery, it is the largest foundry & forging complex in India and one of its kind
in the world.
❖ Heavy Machine Building Plant (HMBP)
The plant has a fenced off area of 5,70,000 m2 and a floor area of nearly 2,00,000
m2 well equipped with sophisticated machine tools and handling equipment of
top quality. The unit is engaged in design and manufacture of equipment and
components for steel plants, mining, mineral processing, material handling,
power, cement, space research, nuclear power etc. It has an annual installed
capacity of 40,000 tonnes of equipment and structures.

❖ Heavy Machine Tools Plant (HMTP)

The plant covers an area of over 2,13,500 m2 is involved in the design and
manufacture of medium & heavy duty CNC and conventional machine tools for
railway, defense, ordnance factories, HAL, engineering sector, Space and other
strategic sectors.
Customers:
Major customers of HEC in India are:
Steel Sector:- Sail, TISCO, Essar Steel, Jindal Steel, Usha, Ispat Industries,
Mecon, Rastriya Ispat:- Nigam limited(RINL), Birla Technical Services.
Defence Sector:- Ordinance factory, Indian Navy, Sarabhai Space center.
Mining sector:- Coal India Limited, HCL, National Mineral development
corporation, Collieries Limited.
Aluminum Sector:- BALCO, NALCO.
Power sector:- UP SEB, Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited(BHEL), DVC, NTPC.
Other sector:- TELCO, L&T, ONGC.

Products:-
Steel Plant Equipment :-
• Blast Furnace.
• Steel Melting Converters.
• Forged Rolls

Mining equipment’s :-
➢ Electric Rope Shovels (5 CuM & 10CuM)
➢ Draglines
➢ Crushing Equipment’s :-
• Primary Gyratory Crusher
• Cone Crusher
• Four Roll Crusher
• Rod Mill
Machine Tools :-
• Vertical Turning & Boring Machine
• Lathe
• Roll Grinding Machine
• Deep Hole Boring Machine
• Radial Drilling Machine
• Planning Machine
• Plano Milling Machine
• Special Purpose Railway Machine Tools
Cranes :-
• EOT Cranes
Casting &forging :-
• Steel Casting
• Steel Forging
• Grey Iron Casting
 • Non- Ferrous Castings
Special Equipment :-
• Surface Wheel Lathe (conventional & CNC Version)
• Under Floor Wheel Lathes (conventional & CNC Version)
• Axle Journal Turning & Burnishing Machine

Awards:-
HEC has own the following awards in the past from Engineering Exports
Promotion Council in reorganization of its export performance.
Year
2008 :- SCOPE Award
2009 :- Indian Nuclear Society Award
2010 :- BRPSE Turnaround Award
2011 :- Performance Excellence Award
2012 :- BT Star PSU Excellence Turnaround Award

❖ Foundry Forge Plant (FFP)

Introduction
The Foundry Forge Plant is one of the largest of its kind, spread over an area of
13,16,930 m2. The factory is about 2km in length and 1.2 km in breadth. About
76,000 tons of machinery installed in the plant to cope with various operations
efficiently. A special feature of this plant is the underground electric furnace,
some measuring up to 20 m deep and 1.9 m in this plant. Casting and forging of
practically any type and composition from few kg to as heavy as 100 tones pieces
weight can be produced to meet the need of industries like steel, cement, ship
building, electrical in the core sector, manufacture of sophisticated forging and
forged rolls with latest technology from HITACHI ltd. Japan is on the anvil. The
various features of FFP are:
Area of plant: 13.16 lakh m2
Total Machineries installed: 76,000MT.
Various steps in which its constructions took place:
1st stage: Non-ferrous, iron foundry, light forge section.
2nd stage: Iron foundry, Steel Foundry, Forge shop, M/C Shop and other
auxiliary units.
3rd stage: 6000ton press
Year of starting of production: 1964 in iron foundry.

➢ Wood Working And Pattern Shop (06-07 Shop)

Introduction
The pattern shop is unique of its kind in Asia. It is supposed to be the biggest in
South East Asia equipped to produce both wooden and metal pattern. This shop
is set up to fulfil the demand of pattern from iron and steel foundry, which is an
important necessity for casting. Modern facilities like cross cutting saw, circular
saw, planners, wood seasoning etc. are capable of producing various large pattern
to 5000mm diameter and 3000 kg wt. It has mainly two wings:
06-Pattern shop area- 9,639 ft2
07- Repairing and storage area- 10,000 ft2
06 Shop is set up mainly for pattern making. 07 Shop, a separate building has
been provided in southern side of the shop for repair of old and used pattern of
core boxes etc. There are two bays meant for repair work and rest 5 bays for
storing the used and new pattern, which are not used for time being.
Various types of timber used in pattern making are:
• Deodar
At HEC, Gamhar and Deodar are used as pattern material for wooden pattern due
to their easy and cheap availability & also due to their light weight. The moisture
in timber is 35% to 45% which is brought down by means of seasoning by air,
steam or by artificial mean. Artificial mean is faster process. After seasoning
moisture content in wood is 8% to 9%.
Various Equipment Used:
Sl. No. Machine 06 Shop 07 Shop Total
1 Surface Planner 7 2 9
2 Thicknesser 6 2 8
3 Power Saw 1 0 1
4 Bend Saw 11 4 15
5 Wood Milling Machine 4 2 6
6 German Lathe 1 0 1
7 Bench Drill Machine 4 1 5
8 Disc Grinder 3 1 4
9 Boring Machine 2 1 3
10 Segment Cutting Machine 1 0 1
11 Vertical Milling Machine 3 0 3
12 Centre Lathe 3 0 3
13 Radial Drill Machine 1 0 1
14 Vertical Turing & Boring Machine 1 0 1

Color Code used for various types of pattern:

1. Grey Al alloy pattern
2. Yellow Cu alloy pattern
 3. Red Cast iron pattern
4. Green Master pattern
5. Blue Cast steel pattern
6. Black Core printing

Seasoning Section:
In this section, seasoning is done to remove excessive moisture of the timber and
to maintain a correct level of it, about 8% to 10%.

Process of Removing Moisture

Natural
Artificial
a) In Natural seasoning the timber is kept open in the air and seasoning is done
by water, then the timber is kept in pond. The pond water absorbs the
moisture from the wood.

b) In artificial seasoning there are three process:

• In close chamber passing hot air.
• Passing steam in closed chamber.
• Passing a mixture of steam and hot air.
In artificial seasoning i.e. adopted in HEC, it takes 10-15 days depending upon
the thickness, moisture content and the type of timber. The hot air inside the
closed chamber is disturbed by means of fan. The temperature is maintained about
60- 80 oC.

Selection of Timber for Pattern making:

At HEC the pattern material is selected according to number of casting to be
produced. There are different grades of pattern materials divided according to the
properties of the material.
Grade Number of Casting Pattern Material
IV or V 1-2 Pieces Any Type of Meterial
III 2-10 Pieces Deodar, Pine, Gamhar
II 11-50 Pieces Teak or Deodar
I 50-100 Pieces Teak
O Above 100 Metals

Pattern Making:
The drawing of components whose pattern is being made is to be studied first.
According to the customer specifications allowances are calculated on different
scales like shrinkage, machine allowances etc.to the machine drawing to be done
on a card board and then patterns are prepared with the help of different tools.

Contraction Rules/ Shrinkage Rules:

For Grey cast iron 1% scale (10mm)

For Al & Al alloy steel 2% scale

For Carbon steel, low/ medium alloy steel 2% scale

White cast iron 1.5% or 2% scale

Copper base alloy Depending upon nature

High alloy steel 2.5%

Permissible Tolerance (According to IS 1513-1971)

Size range(mm) Wooden Pattern Metallic Pattern
 Hard Soft Sand Mold Shell Mold
Up to 50 0.5 0.8 0.4 0.25
50-150 0.6 1.0 0.5 0.30
150-300 0.8 1.2 0.6 0.35
300-500 1.0 1.5 0.7 0.40
500-800 1.2 2.0 0.9 0.50
800-1200 1.5 2.5 0.9 0.60
1200-1800 1.8 3.0 1.0 -
1800-2500 2.1 3.5 1.2 -
2500-4000 2.4 4.0 1.5 -

Pattern Materials Types of Pattern

1. Timber 1. Single piece pattern
2. Cast iron 2. Split Pattern
3. Steel/Brass/Bronze/Copper/Al-alloy 3. Match plate pattern
4. Plaster of Paris 4. Core assembly pattern
5. Wax 5. Sweep Pattern
6. Epoxy resin 6. Master Pattern
7. Plastic 7. Skeleton Pattern
8. Form polystyrene 8. Old casting as a pattern

Types of Core boxes Joining material

1. Split Type 1. Glue
2. Clamp type (height up to 200mm) 2. Screw
3. Wedge type (from 200mm to 1m) 3. Epoxy resin
4. Double wedge type (more than 1m) 4. Nuts and Bolts
5. Dumping over type (for mass production)
6. Cotter type (up to 200 mm height)
Fettling Materials:
1. Lifting strips
 2. Conveying strip
3. Metal strip on strickle
Painting and Coating:
To obtain good resistance to moisture, long storage life, it is essential that all the
surface of pattern should be given suitable coating of paint or varnish by brush
or spray.
Coating Materials:
1. Filter materials Acetone putty, Timber putty, French chalk
2. Paint Nitrocellulose base Al paint
3. Polish material Spirit + Chapra
4. Metal spray
Pattern Inspection
After making pattern, it is time for inspection for accuracy. General procedure
for inspection is:
1. Visual inspection 3. Dimensional inspection
2. Stage inspection 4. Final inspection
Pattern Storage
Once the pattern has been used or prepared it is stored for future order or to be
used by some minor repairs in storeroom. They are given specific coding for
easy recovery.

Grey Iron Foundry (01 Shop)

Introduction
It is the mother of foundry forge plant. In this shop, casting are made with
the help of molding and pattern casting. The melting section of the Grey iron
foundry is equipped with 4 hot blast cupola furnace of 1200mm dia and 10 tones
capacity per hour. These cupolas are connected to two air suppliers. The melting
section has two crucible type induction furnace having capacity of 3 tones. The
flow of molten metal is channelled into three molding sections: dry, green sand
and rolls.
In the core shop beside the normal sand core, oil sand and CO2 sand core can be
produced. Gray iron castings up to maximum piece weight of 100 tons can be
done in this section. Grey iron is widely used for molding different types of
casting. Grey iron is basically eutectic alloy of Fe, graphite and Si. It has good
fluidity, high damping capacity and good heat conductivity. In microstructure, it
is marked by presence of flakes in matrix of ferrite, pearlite or austenite. In
Greyfoundry the following types of products are generally produced:
1. Iron casting of pieces weight up to 80 tones.
2. Ingots moulds of pieces weight up to 75 tones.
3. Cast rolls of various types such finite chill rods, grain rolls.

The whole grey iron foundry shop is divided into seven sections:
1. Core sections
2. Light weight molding section
3. Medium weight molding section
4. Heavy weight molding section
5. Maintenance section
6. Sand plant
7. Non-ferrous section

Description of equipment in various bays:

1. AB Bay :-
This bay is also known as raw material section. In this bay, raw material
supplied to cupola and induction furnace is stored, which is used for casting.
Equipment Present Qty. Capacity
1. E.O.T. cranes 1 2.5 tones
 2. E.O.T. cranes 1 8 tones
3. Bracket cranes 2 200 kg

2. BC Bay :-
This bay is divided into two halves. In the first half, system for supplying air to
the cupola and mold drying ovens are kept and in 2nd half bay maintenance
section , which perform all the maintenance work of 01 shop. In the first half,
equipment present are:
1. E.O.T. cranes 12.5 tones
2. Mold drying furnace: Pattern are shifted in it to remove gas of molds and
core’s moisture. It is operated by producer gas. Oil is required for charging
process.

Equipment Present:
1. Drilling machine 4. Grinder
2. Lathe 5. Press
3. Shaper 6. Welding Requirement(only electric arc welding)
BC bay consists of 4 cupolas and two induction furnace of 3T capacity.
3. CD Bay:
Pit molding produces heavy castings. This bay is also known as melting section
& is equipped with 4 cupola and an exhaust systems. Dry sand and air hardened
sands are mostly used here.
4. DE Bay:
It is called medium heavy dry sand bay. Medium and heavy castings are
produced by means of floor and pit molding.
5. FG Bay:
This bay is called heavy core making section. Cores are prepared by means of
mold. This bay has seven producers gas operated mold and core drying
furnaces.
 6. GH Bay:
It is known as light green sand bay. In this section core and light castings are
produced by means of box and floor molding.

Sand Plant:
Sand used in various section of grey iron foundry shop is prepared in the sand
plant. During preparation, the sand is first dried in sand drying machine. After
that it is shifted to mixing unit. After the sand it is transported to different
section by means of conveyor belt.
Sand plant is divided into six systems as follows:
1. Sand drier system 4. Green sand return system
2. Green sand preparation system 5. Dry sand preparation system
3. New sand transport section 6. Dry sand return system

Non Ferrous section:

In this section, Cu-base alloys, Tin, Bronze etc. are cast to fulfil the requirement
of HMBP & HMTP.
Raw materials:
Cu, Zn, Pb, Sn, Ni etc. all in pure form.
Products:
Bush, Bearing, washer, Nut, Al-machine cover

Inspection:
Inspection of finished product is done by means of following method:
Mechanical Testing
Chemical Testing
Visual Inspection

Details of Equipment:
 i. Pit type crucible furnace:
There are 3 pit type crucible furnace. In this type of furnace oil feeding is
done by gravity and flame is rotating to prevent the heat accumulation.
ii. Sand Plant:
This section has a separate sand plant where the sand required for mold and
core are prepared. The various types of sand prepared are dry sand, green
sand, No-bake sand, CO2 sand. The capacity of this sand plant is 1 ton.
iii. Circular saw cutting machine:
It is used for cutting purpose only. Any type of cutting inclined, vertical,
horizontal can be done by this machine.
iv. Grinding Machine
v. Lathe
vi. Induction Furnace:
It has two crucibles. It is water cooled. Only treated water is used as coolant
to prevent chocking of cooling pipe.
vii. Centrifugal Casting unit:
It is mainly used for production of hollow cylindrical pipe of any Non-
Ferrous metal depending on requirement of customer. At HEC maximum
length of 2.2 m, outer dia 400mm and minimum inner diameter 200mm
can be produced.

Process done to get a product (Casting)

Generally the following process are performed to obtain a product:
1) Sand preparation:
Different types of sand in grey iron foundry are produced and are prepared with
the help of an automatic sand preparation plant. Various types of sand prepared
are CO2 sand, green sand, dry sand, no-bake sand or resin sand etc. are used
according to the casting produced. For chunky and intricate casting CO2 sand is
used. For light casting, there is special sand but cores are made of CO2 sand.
2) Molding :
Molding are done in molding boxes consisting of two parts cope and drag, but
in case of big castings molds are prepared in pits dug in the foundry floor.
Manual ramming is used for ramming green and dry sand in the molding boxes.
Generally, no rammers are used in case of CO2 sand molds and resin sand
molds.

3) Painting of mold:
Paintings of molds are generally done by water based graphite paints. Two coats
of paints are applied after drying of previous coatings. This facilitates good
surface finish and prevents sand fusion. Water base zircon paints are used for
big chunky castings. Some cores are painted with alcohol base zircon paints.
They are dried by burning the alcohol.

4) Core making:
Cores are made in core boxes. Generally cores are made by CO2 sand, however
core oil sand and phenolic sand are also used for core making.

5) Core and Mold drying:

Core and molds are dried in oven for 5-6 hours at 300oC. However CO2 sand
are not dried in oven but their paint coatings are dried by gas burner using
producer gas.

6) Melting:
There are 4 cupolas for melting cast iron. One induction furnace of 2-10 ton
capacity is also used for melting purpose.
7) Pouring:
Lip pouring ladles are used for cast iron molten metals. In lip pouring extra care
is taken for removing slag, after collecting the molten metal from the cupola.

8) Fettling:
This process is carried out in 05 shop. Risers are cut with the help of
oxyacetylene flame, sands are removed by shot blasting, hydro blast. In hydro
blast high pressure water is thrown on the casting, which washes out the sand.
Shot blast is used to remove fused sand from the surface of the casting.

Steel Foundry (02 Shop)

This foundry is designed mainly to fulfil the requirement of the forge shop and
adjoining HMBP.
Introduction
Furnace Qty. Capacity
Electric Arc Furnace 1 60 ton
Electric Arc Furnace 2 30 ton
Electric Arc Furnace 1 10 ton
Electric Arc Furnace 1 5 ton
Induction Furnace 1 2 ton

The electrodes are of graphite, whose length is adjustable and all the furnaces
are hydraulically operated. There is one Vacuum Arc Degassing (VAD) unit of
capacity 60T, one Vacuum Degassing (VD) unit of capacity 90T, which is used
for purifying steel to produce ingots. The whole steel foundry shop covered an
area of 43,310 m2. This shop is equipped with following equipment:
a. Two numbers of 10T/hr continuous sand mixture for production of phenolic
resin sand mixture.
b. One shell core shooter for making intricate shapes.

Sand Plant
Sand required in molding section of steel foundry is prepared here. The various
types of sand prepared here and their composition are:
a) Dry sand: d) Green sand
Rajmahal/silica sand 70% Return sand 72%
Silica flour 10% New sand 15%
Bentonite 0.3% Bentonite 4%
Fire clay 10% Dextrin 1%
Water 0.6% Iron oxide powder 1%
Molasses 0.1% Water 7%

b) Zr- CO2 sand: e) Chemically treated bentonite:

Zircon sand 45% Sand 90%
New sand 50% Sodium silicate 6%
Sodium silicate 5% Bentonite 3%
Water 1%
c) Oil core sand:
Sand 90%
Bentonite 3%
Dextrin 1.5%
Core oil 2.5%
Water 2.5%
Iron oxide powder 0.5%

Process:
Sand Preparation:
Same as that of Iron foundry.

Molding:
Same as that of iron foundry. Here for the opening of riser or gate, cracked core
is used. It gives safety of casting and helps in easy removal of casting. It is
generally used in Mg steel casting.
Painting:
Same as that of Iron foundry.
Core making:
Same as that of Iron foundry.
Core and mold drying:
Same as that of Iron foundry.
Melting:
Same as that of Iron foundry.
Pouring:
In the case of steel casting bottom pouring is done. For this purpose ladle with
opening at bottom is used. The flow of molten metal through the opening is
controlled through a stopper. Bottom pouring is done to prevent the screening
effect.
Shake out:
Same as that of Iron foundry.
Fettling:
Fettling is almost same as that of iron foundry. Sand plant is the most important
part of any foundry because sand prepared plays important role in casting. In 02
shop, Rajmahal sand and Allahabad sand is used for molding. The sand used must
be dry and must possesses certain parameters as follows:
I. Refractoriness should be high fusion.
II. Grain size should be proper.
III. Free from impurities.
IV. Must contain appropriate amount of clays etc.

Melting Section:
The melting section can also be divided into three units:
A. Charging unit
B. Melting unit
C. Die and pit unit (pouring unit)

Charging unit:
This unit is concerned with preparation of scrap on which composition of the melt
depends. In this unit the charge is mainly prepared for plane carbon steel, Alloy
steel, Alloy steel and cast iron materials. Basic composition of the melt contains
C, Si, Mn, P and S, which are also called primary elements.
Melt is alloyed with different alloying element such as Cr,Ni,Mo,V, Ti etc. to
give certain desired properties.
Melting Unit:
This unit is equipped with electric arc furnace of various capacities and Vacuum
arc-degassing furnace.
Furnace Specification:
1. Electric Arc Furnace:
a. Capacity 10T
Transformer rating 3.8Mv,50 Hz
Electrode dia 10”

b. Capacity 30T
Transformer rating 3.8Mv,50 Hz
Electrode dia 14”

c. Capacity 60T
Transformer rating 36 Mv,50 Hz
Electrode dia 10”
The Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) consists of 3 Electrodes, molten bath tapping
spout, refractory brick movable roof, brick shell and a refractory lined bowl
shaped vessel, water cooled in larger size. The furnace is primarily split into three
sections:
• Shell consists of the sidewalls and lower steel bowl.
• Hearth consists of the refractory that lines the lower bowl.
• Roof which may be refractory lined or water cooled and can be shaped as
a section of a sphere. The roof also supports the refractory delta in its centre,
through which one or more graphite electrodes enter.
The EAF is powered by a 3 phase electrical system and therefore has three
electrodes. Electrodes are round in section and in segments with threaded
couplings, so that as the electrodes wear, new segments can be added. The arc
forms between the charged material and the electrode, the charge is heated both
by current passing through the charge and by the radiant energy evolved by the
arc. The electrodes are automatically raised and lowered by a positioning system,
which may use either electric winch hoists or hydraulic cylinders. The regulating
system maintains constant current and power input during the melting of the
charge, even though scrap may move under the electrodes as it melts. Since the
electrodes move up and down automatically for regulation of the arc, and arc
raised to allow removal of the furnace roof, large water-cooled cables connect the
bus tubes with the transformer located adjacent to the furnace. To protect the
transformer from heat, it is installed in a vault and is itself cooled via pumped oil
exchanging heat with the plants water cooling systems, as the electrical
conditions for arc furnace steelmaking are extremely stressful on the transformer.
The furnace is built on a tilting platform so that the liquid steel can be poured into
another vessel for transport. The operation of tilting the furnace to pour molten
steel is called tapping.

Induction furnace:
Capacity 5T
Frequency 1000Hz
Power consumption 700KW

2. Ladle Furnace (60T):

This type of furnace is not used for metal melting, metal addition & degassing
purpose, it is only used to reserve molten metal for pouring. Nozzle is placed in
the bottom of ladle, to control molten metal flow during pouring.
The ladle is fitted with a refractory lining that stops the steel vessel from suffering
damage when the ladle is used to transport metal with high melting temperature.
If the molten metal come in direct contact with the ladle shell, it would rapidly
melt through the shell. Refractory lining materials come in many forms.
Traditionally ladles used to be lined using pre-cast firebricks, however refractory
concretes have tended to supress these in many countries.

Types:
• Casting ladle: It is used to pour molten metal into molds to produce casting.
• Transfer ladle: It is used to transfer a large amount of molten metal from
one process to another i.e. from primary furnace to either a holding furnace
or an auto-pour unit.
• Treatment ladle: It is used for a process to take place within the ladle to
change some aspect of molten metal. A typical example being convert cast
iron to ductile iron by the addition of various elements into the ladle.

3. Vacuum arc degassing:

During tapping of the steel, air bubbles are entrained into the steel where the tap
stream enters the bath in the tap ladle. The quantity of air entrained into the steel
increases with the increasing free fall height of the tap stream. The entrainment
of a gas such as air into a falling stream of liquid steel has been the subject of a
number of studies, however, a reliable prediction of the quantity of air entrained
into a stream of liquid steel during tapping is difficult because of the assumptions
that have to be made.
To obtain a high quality steel or metal, it is important to remove the
inclusions, slag and undesirable gases which are dissolved in molten metal during
melting and pouring process. The VAD is used for purification of molten metal.
VAD is equipped with bottom plugs for argon bubbling. To achieve a
homogeneous bath temperature and composition, the steel in the ladle is most
often stirred by means of argon gas bubbling.
The refining of steel in the ladle is broadly defined here as comprising the
following operations: deoxidation, desulfurization, phosphorylation, controlled
additions of alloying elements and inclusion modification.
Deoxidation
The first step in the refining sequence in the ladle is usually the deoxidation of
the steel with ferromanganese, ferrosilicon, silicomanganese and aluminum.
There are three categories of steel deoxidation.
• Steel deoxidized with ferromanganese to yield 100–200 ppm dissolved
oxygen; these are usually resulfurized steel grades.
• Semi-killed steels deoxidized with:
▪ Si/Mn to yield 50–70 ppm dissolved oxygen,
▪ Si/Mn/Al to yield 25–40 ppm dissolved oxygen,
▪ Si/Mn/Ca to yield 15–20 ppm dissolved oxygen.
• Killed steels deoxidized with aluminum to yield 2–4 ppm dissolved
oxygen.
4. Vacuum degassing:
Vacuum degassing of steel has an even longer history than the treatment of steel
with calcium, initially, vacuum degassing was used primarily for hydrogen
removal. However, during the last twenty years or so there has been an increased
use of vacuum degassing for the production of ultralow-carbon (ULC) steels with
carbon contents of 30 ppm or less. Furthermore, a relatively new family of steel
grades, the so-called interstitial-free (IF) steels with carbon and nitrogen contents
of 30 ppm or less, has appeared on the scene. To achieve these low carbon and
nitrogen contents, a treatment under vacuum is mandatory. Presently, almost
every high-quality steel producer has installed a vacuum treatment facility.
Pouring Unit:
After liquid metal has been prepared, it is taken to the prepared mold boxes or
ingot mold with the help of ladle using E.O.T. to the molding unit or pit-casting
unit. The metal is poured and allowed to solidify. The mold after solidification of
casting is broken and the product is sent for further processes to carry out such as
fettling, forging, heat treatment etc.
Major products of this shop:
• Ladles for steel plants ● Sand channel
• Casting of tank bodies ● Stopper body
• Cotter pillar frames ● Steel plant equipment
• Excavator ● Cement plant equipment
• Gears ● Power plant equipment
• Pulleys ● Drag line items
• Crushing balls ● Ingots
• Bottom housing ● Austenitic Manganese steel items

Fettling Shop (05 Shop)

It is separate shop well connected by railway track with all the production units
of plants and is situated side of grey iron and steel foundry, well equipped with
conventional method of shot blasting, chiselling, grinding.
Built up on area of 16600m2, this shop has complete facility for heat treatment
of different casting. There are in all, 11 gas fired annealing furnaces ranging from
3272 m2 and capable of being heated up to 1100 oC. There are two cooling
chambers provided for rapid cooling by air blowing. This shop is divided into 9
bays, among these bays bay no.1 and 2 is under grey iron foundry control whereas
all other are under steel foundry. Following are the steps for finishing the casting:
A. shake out of the casting, the sand lumps are removed. It is done in two ways:
I. For small casting operations performed are manually and is done by wire
brush, chisel, chipping, hammer etc.
II. For huge amount adhere sand and large castings hydro-blast, shot blast,
vibrators are used.
B. Cutting of fins, parting line flash, pads, gates and unwanted projections of
castings are removed by:
▪ Oxy acetylene gas cutting
▪ Fatal arcing
▪ Chipping
▪ Grinding etc.
C. Removal of riser
Preheating is done before cutting the riser to eliminate the cracking of the casting.
But in case of Austenite Mn-Steel, the cutting will be done in cold condition and
the temperature of the cutting zone should not exceed 1000 oC, otherwise crack
will develop. Before cutting the riser of these steels, casting is preheated at 1050
oC -1100 oC and quenched into water.
D. Rough finishing of the casting is done after riser cutting. It is done by grinding,
rotary tools etc.
E. Finishing of casting is done by brushing, polishing, painting etc. For grey iron
foundry flogging process does the removal of gating system and risers. Here
are 4 hydro blasting machines.
Cast iron castings required very less heat treatment, but steel castings needs heat
treatment cycle, which depends upon size, shape and type of casting.

Forge Shop (03 Shop)

Located in between the steel foundry and machine shop. This shop covers a
floor area of 5000m2. The entire forge shop is divided into 3 sub divisions.
1. Light Forge shop
2. Medium forge shop
3. Heavy forge shop
Light Forge Shop
In this shop job of weight less than 500 kg are forged. The forging arrangement
includes:
1. 3T pneumatic hammer 1
2. 1.6T pneumatic hammer 1
3. 25T Pneumatic die forging unit 1
4. Trimming die forging unit 1
5. 800T Horizontal forging machine 2
For handling the job while forging a is used. There is also heat treatment
arrangement, low frequency induction hardening machine and quenching
arrangement in the shop.

Medium Forge shop

Here job of 5T-10T are forged. The forging equipment includes:
I. Hydraulic Press (3Pc)
Capacity 1000T
Type Single cylinder
Capacity 1650T
Type 3 cylinder & 3 staged
Capacity 2650T
Type 3 cylinder & 3 staged

II. Gas Cutting machine

High Forge Shop
In this shop job weighing more than 10T are forged. The forging equipment
consists of a very special 6000T capacity hydraulic press. The jobs are held by
their heads in a special 250T crane while forging. Apart from all that, there is an
electric manipulator for handling smaller jobs. There are producer gas fired bogie
type furnaces for preheating the jobs before the forging. But due to unavailability
of coal Hybrid furnace is being used in HEC, in which LPG and HSD (High speed
diesel) fuel is used for heating the job.
The Accumulator Section:
The presses installed in the forging shops are supplied with their working fluid at
their respective working pressure by the accumulator station built in between the
MFS and HFS. The pressure of emulsion provided by the station to HFS is 350
atm and to the MFS is 250 atm.
The Accumulator station consists of two parts:
▪ Water purification and pre-treatment section.
▪ Energizing section.

Machine Shop (04 Shop)

This shop consists of automatic machine tools for finishing the jobs sent out by
the foundries (01 & 02 shops) and the forging shop. There are several general
purpose machine and giant center lathes, Vertical turning & Boring machine,
Milling machine, Roll grinding machine, Shapers, Planners, Drilling machines
etc. for handling smaller and larger jobs.
Some of the unique machines of this shop are as follows:
1. HEC inbuilt Horizontal Trepanning Machine
Trepanning diameter range 50mm-250mm
Solid drill diameter range 25mm-45mm
Size range of boring head available 50mm-350mm
Maximum trepanning length 20m
2. Giant center Lathe
Swing over bed 2080mm
Swing over carriage 1700mm
Maximum length of job 40m
Maximum Trepanning length 24m
Maximum weight of job 28T
3. Vertical turning and Boring Machine
Operations- Turning, Boring, Tapering etc.
4. Roll Grinding Machine
Maximum job diameter 800mm
Maximum job length 9m
Maximum job weight 800T
5. Horizontal Boring Machine
Maximum job diameter 200mm
Maximum job length 8000mm
Vertical movement 3150mm
Operations- Boring, centre making, key cutting, threading, tapper cutting, groove
cutting, facing etc.
6. Planner machine.

Heat Treatment arrangements:

There are several electric and non-electric furnaces for the heat treatment of jobs
like rolls, crankshafts etc. after rough machining. Some of the furnaces are as
follows:
• Medium Frequency Induction Hardening Machine:
Job length 1-6m
Diameter 150-800mm
Weight 15T
Power input 600kW
• Low Frequency Induction Hardening Machine:
Job length 5m
Diameter 300-650mm
Weight 15T
Power input 100kW
• Nitriding Furnace:
The furnace is operated at 530-540 oC. Prolong heating is done at this temperature
(50hr). Cracked ammonia gas is used as nitriding agent. The maximum case depth
is achieved about 5mm in 50 litre. Six jobs can be treated at a time.

Heavy Machine Building Plant

Introduction
The HMBP consists of following shops:
 • Shop 010-011
Main processes: Turning, Boring, Facing, Grinding, Vertical milling, Grooving,
Threading, Parting, Slotting
Production- Crushers, slab billets, other planer products
• Shop 020-021
Main processes: Turning, Boring, Facing, Grinding, Vertical milling, Grooving,
Threading, Parting, Slotting
Production- Slab billets, Excavator
• Shop 030-031
Main processes: Milling, Hobbing, Grinding, Turning, Boring, Slotting
Production: All types of gears
• Shop 041-042
Main Processes: CNC gas cutting sheet metal working, Welding, Sheet rolling &
punching, Planning
Production: Fabrication assembled parts and components sheet metal works

• Shop 043-044
Main Processes: Planning, Turning, Boring, Tapering, Slotting, Grinding,
Threading
Production: Assembled machine components after Machining as per requirement.

Machines used in this Plant

Lathe Machine
The lathe is a machine tool which holds the job between two rigid and strong
supports called centers or in a chuck or face plate which revolves. The cutting
tool is rigidly held and supported in a tool post which is fed against the revolving
work. The normal cutting operations are performed with the cutting tool fed either
parallel or at right angles to the axis of the work. The cutting tool may also be fed
at an angle relative to the axis of work for machining tapers and angles
Construction:
The main parts of the lathe are the bed, headstock, quick changing gear box,
carriage and tailstock.
• Bed: The bed is a heavy, rugged casting in which are mounted the working
parts of the lathe. It carries the headstock and tail stock for supporting the
job and provides a base for the movement of carriage assembly which
carries the tool.

Legs: The legs carry the entire load of machine and are firmly secured to floor
by foundation bolts.

Headstock: The headstock is clamped on the left hand side of the bed and it
serves as housing for the driving pulleys, back gears, headstock spindle, live
centre and the feed reverse gear. The headstock spindle is a hollow cylindrical
shaft that provides a drive from the motor to work holding devices.
Gear Box: The quick-change gear-box is placed below the headstock and
contains a number of different sized gears.
Carriage: The carriage is located between the headstock and tailstock and
serves the purpose of supporting, guiding and feeding the tool
against the job during operation. The main parts of carriage are:

▪ The saddle is an H-shaped casting mounted on the top of lathe ways. It

provides support to cross-slide, compound rest and tool post.

▪ The cross slide is mounted on the top of saddle, and it provides a

mounted or automatic cross movement for the cutting tool.
 ▪ The compound rest is fitted on the top of cross slide and is used to
support the tool post and the cutting tool.

▪ The tool post is mounted on the compound rest, and it rigidly clamps the
cutting tool or tool holder at the proper height relative to the work centre
line.

▪ The apron is fastened to the saddle and it houses the gears, clutches and
levers required to move the carriage or cross slide. The engagement of
split nut lever and the automatic feed lever at the same time is prevented
she carriage along the lathe bed.

▪ Tailstock: The tailstock is a movable casting located opposite the

headstock on the ways of the bed. The tailstock can slide along the bed to
accommodate different lengths of job between the centers. A tailstock
clamp is provided to lock the tailstock at any desired position. The tailstock
spindle has an internal taper to hold the dead centre and the tapered shank
tools such as reamers and drills.

Lathe Operation
The engine lathe is an accurate and versatile machine on which many operations
can be performed. These operations are:
▪ Plain Turning and Step Turning
▪ Threading
▪ Facing
 ▪ Forming
▪ Parting
▪ Chamfering
▪ Drilling
▪ Filling and Polishing
▪ Reaming
▪ Grooving
▪ Boring
▪ Taper Turning
▪ Knurling

Shop 010-011
Horizontal boring machine (M/C -1191)
Maximum Spindle diameter 320mm
Maximum Spindle travel 2.5m
Maximum Head travel 5m
X direction movement 8m
Feed rate 1-1.5mm/m
Table can be adjusted in 360 o rotation
Operations: Drilling, Boring, Facing, Turning etc.

Vertical Turning & Boring machine (M/C No.1192)

Maximum job diameter 6300mm
Maximum job Height 3200mm

CNC Vertical Turning & Boring machine (M/C No.1262)

Maximum job diameter 14000mm
Maximum job height 4700mm
Maximum weight of job 250T
Manually & automated
3 Axis control
Except shaping, slotting, planning all operation of lathe can be done.

Plano-Milling machine(M/C no.1170)

Table dimension 1800mm * 6000mm
Maximum height of job 1920mm
Maximum weight of job 14T

Shop 021-022
Same type of machines which are available in Shop 011 are present in this shop.
In this shop medium weight type job is machined.
Some other machines which are available in this shop are:

• Drill Machine
Maximum bore diameter 80mm
Column Height 2m
Operations- Rimming, Drilling, Taping, Threading

• Slotter Machine

• Shaper Machine

Shop 030-031 (Reduction Gear Shop)

Plant Specification:
Building area 8760m2
No. of machine tools 66
No. of unique machine tools 15
Maximum Plano-Milling capacity 8.5m * 2.5m * 25m
Maximum gear hobbing capacity 5.8m dia * 30 module
Induction hardening capacity maxm 5m(length) * 4m (dia)

Machine Tools:
▪ Gear Hobbing Machine(Vertical & Horizontal)
▪ Gear shapper Machine
▪ Plano-Milling Machine
▪ Planner Machine
▪ Milling Machine (Horizontal & vertical)
▪ Lathe(Caption, Turret, Center )

Shop 041-042
In this shop sheet metal, fabrication and assembly of machine work is done.

Machine tools in the shop

▪ CNC Flame Cutting
➢ Oxy-acetylene gas is used for cutting
➢ 8-500mm thick job can be cut
➢ 5 nozzle
➢ Cutting bed dimension- 6500mm * 25000mm

• Shearing Machine(1Pc)
Sheet metal is being cut by machine by shearing process. It can cut from 1mm to
6mm thickness. Maximum available shearing machine can cut up to thickness of
12mm. Cutting tool is operated by Pneumatic.
• Roller Straightening machine
This machine is used to straight the bended plate.
• Radial Drilling Machine
• Punching Machine
• Bending Roll Machine
This machine is used to bend the plate into cylindrical shape.
Welding and fabrication is also done in this shop. Mainly Submerged arc
welding, MIG welding is done.

Product of HMBP plant

• EOT Cranes:
HEC designs and manufacture heavy duty Electric Overhead Travelling cranes
for application in steel plants, Engineering sector, Space research application etc.
The highest capacity crane designed and manufacture so far is the 450T ladle
crane to handle hot liquid metal.

• Mining Equipment
HEC pioneered the manufacture of heavy duty mining equipment in india and
has supplied over 260000T of equipment & components. Mining equipment
supplied includes:

➢ Power shovel 5CuM

10CuM
12.5CuM
➢ Walking Dragline: HEC is the first Indian company to manufacture a
walking dragline of 24 CuM bucket capacity with 96m boom.

➢ Crushers: A wide variety of crushing & grinding equipment is offered to

meet the requirements of ferrous and non-ferrous ore processing plants,
cement, fertilizers, chemical and coal Industries.
Types of crushers:
• Gyratory crusher ● Two roll crusher
• Cone crusher ● Single roll crusher
• Jaw crusher ● Four roll crusher
• Reversible hammer mill ● Rod mill etc.

Heavy Machine Tools Plant

Introduction
HEC manufactures machine tools in the heavier range that serve vital industries
such as steel, Railways, engineering, mining, defence, general workshops, space
research & application etc. HEC offers high precision machine tools of state of
art design. In addition to the manufacturing new machine tools, HEC also
provides refurbishment and rebuilding services.
HMTP consists of following shops:
• Shop 13
Main Processes: Turning, Milling, Gear hobbing, heat treatment,
Carborizing, Lathe operation
• Shop 15
Main processes: Machining operations like planning, milling, boring,
grinding, honing, CNC operation

• Shop 17
Main processes: Assembly of various components to form machine as per
order of requirement done in this section.

Products
Both CNC & conventional machine tools:
• Vertical Turning & boring machine
• Heavy duty centre lathe
• Double Column Plano milling machine
• Double Column milling machine
• Radial drilling machine
• Horizontal boring & milling machine