We received a message from the Director of Defense Metallurgical Research Laboratory(DMRL), Hyderabad, that he wanted to visit BHPV and in particular R&D laboratory. On the appointed day he visited BHPV and R&D. The first question he asked us was whether we knew how to weld armour steel. Our honest answer was that we had no need to weld armour steel in our business but definitely we can try.
DMRL had developed an armour steel as a replacement for the steel India was importing from Russia for the armoured personnel carrier(APC) which India was building under license.
It was am excellent steel much better than the Russian steel in its ballistic performance. When DMRL proposed to Army to use this steel for armoured personnel carrier (APC) Army had its own reservations.DMRL had manufactured small size plates in its own facilities starting from melting, forging and heat treatment for its trials . The development was remarkable considering the constraint DMRL had. Very few people could understand the manufacture of armour steel and the precise heat treatment it has to undergo to meet the ballistic requirements.In addition, APC will have various thicknesses and the ballistic performance must satisfy various requirements.Credit should be given to the Director, DMRL and his band of enthusiastic young scientists who pulled out a difficult task successfully. You have to remember that this development was in early 1980's. Army, rightly, told DMRL that they need large size plates and in huge quantities. DMRL tied up with one of the steel manufacturers to produce these plates. Once every objection by the Army was neutralised,Army asked DMRL to prove that the steel is weldable and DMRL should supply the welding technology.This is where we came in. We shall discuss next time how we proved that the steel is weldable and the welding technology needed to weld APC's.
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