First indigenous armoured vehicle, ‘Tatanagar’ manufactured for World War II
Jamshedpur, Sept 13: Tata Steel’s Research and Development (R&D) department was formally opened by Sir Nowroji Saklatvala, Chairman of the company on 14th September 1937. In India this was the first time a company established R&D department. Sir M Visvesvaraya can be considered one of the founding fathers of R&D. During a Board meeting in 1932 he pointed out that, within his experience, there was no large factory in Europe or America without provision for research. The chief object of such research was to reduce costs and increase output.
The new Control and Research Laboratory was designed to deal with matters relating to research work in addition to routine work under the following heads:
- Control of raw material, involving analytical and chemical problems, for purpose of selection or investigation.
- The study, observation and supervision of all metallurgical operations carried out within the steel plants.
- The properties of special irons and steels.
- Refractory materials
- Corrosion problems
- Development of new steels and new products of all kinds
- Fuel laboratory
The R&D building was designed to offer efficiency, comfort and flexibility. Rooms were laid out to provide a straight line flow of work and were connected by wide corridors. The working tables and benches were designed and constructed to be easily dismantled, added to or modified, with detachable cupboards and drawers. All services, including gas, water, power and vacuum were supplied through a duct running below the floor so that maintenance access was easy and the walls were kept free of piping and cabling. Special attention was paid to safe and healthy working conditions, with considerable thought given to ergonomics, lighting and ventilation. The positions and heights of the tables and benches were designed for convenience of the technicians and to avoid unnecessary movement of the workers. Fume extraction systems were installed with specially designed hoods to protect the technicians. Switchboards were kept out of the laboratories and installed in the corridors to avoid corrosion due to fumes in the chemical labs. Numerous emergency showers were provided in case of acid splashes or similar incidents.
Producing steel for the Howrah Bridge was a major challenge to Tata steel, since it had not yet ventured into low alloy structural steels. The specifications of the steel to be used called for a tensile strength of 37 to 43 tons per square inch.
Developing this grade became the major focus of R&D Department and the researchers were able to overcome all these challenges and the new steel product they created was christened ‘Tiscrom’. Tata Steel’s researchers therefore also started developing a high strength structural steel that was amenable to welding. They came up with ‘Tiscor’’. Tiscor’s high yield strength enabled its use in thinner sections, while its weld ability promoted its use in freight cars, ships, trams and various other vehicles.
The Second World War was a challenge for the researchers of R&D. The most outstanding achievement was the development and production of a bullet-proof armour plate. It was a tribute to the researchers at Tata Steel that the Master General of Ordnance Branch, Shimla remarked that the Company’s armour plate was “Excellent and up to Home Specifications”. This bullet-proof armour plate was first used for armoured vehicles that were fabricated by riveting. Special research was undertaken to also develop a bullet-proof steel for these rivets that had to be driven in hot. This development was also successfully accomplished and the armoured vehicles produced were called Tatanagars. A press item mentioned “Safer than slit trenches during a bombing raid was a gunnery officer’s tribute to the cars during service in the 8th Army. An officer goes on to describe how a 75-mm shell burst on one side of the Tatanagars. The metal plates were buckled but nowhere pierced. The four occupants of the car emerged unscathed. Units possessing the Tatanagar swear by them”