Allied Publishers (P) Ltd., New Delhi, 2001) - 732 p.The making of iron and steel has fascinated scientists and technologists for over one century. There is a general belief amongst those not fully familiar that the iron and steel industry is a sunset industry. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those connected with the industry, realise that the world still needs around 800 million tonnes of steel a year, and this requirement is not going to vanish. In fact, it is increasing year by year, and may reach one billion tonnes within the next one decade. That being the case, more and more economic ways of making steel are constantly being called for, and new and innovative approaches are being pursued to extract the metal from its natural ores. There is now a multitude of technologies which are coming to the fore, with regard to extraction of iron and converting the same into steel. The demands of modern day engineering also requires that steels of specific properties be developed, and very often, niche areas have to be catered for by newer and more stringent extraction methods. The making of iron and steel, therefore, is passing from the state of being an art, to one of exact science and precision. More and more understanding is emerging every year towards the intricacies of producing steels, to meet specific applications, and with tailor-made qualities. That being the case, the metallurgy of iron and steel is becoming even more fascinating every day with the newer technologies competing to produce the appropriate metal, not only, in terms of quality, but also, in terms of economics.
It is, therefore, appropriate that a book of the type authored by Dr. Antit Chatterjee (Metallics for Steelmaking: Production and Use) finds its place in our technical literature. Amit has been a great connoisseur of differentiating various iron and steelmaking technologies from each other, and he has the knack of arriving at the appropriate answer to meet with any industrial situation. His racy and interesting language makes a technical book eminently readable. I am sure that as the reader progresses from chapter to chapter, he (or she) will find the book not only informative, but also, quite entertaining! That is quite an achievement for a technical subject, such as the making and shaping of iron and steel.
Over the last couple of decades, Amit has become an authority in the alternative technologies of making iron, and his work in the area of coal based direct reduction, which he pioneered in Tata Steel, is known all over the world. Although we are an integrated steel plant and direct reduction is not of direct relevance to us, considerable research efforts under Amit's leadership were encouraged because the world in general, and India in particular, will see DR coming up as a complementary technology in the years to come. In fact, when we started our efforts, there were no DR plants in India; today, there are almost 20, and the number is continuously increasing. Other alternative technologies such as smelting reduction, have also come up in India, and it is appropriate that Amit has covered all these subjects in his book. As I write this Foreword, I cannot help but recollect the days when Amit went from the Steel Melting Shop where I was the Chief, to start the pilot plant work on coal based direct reduction. That was almost 25 years ago; today, Amit is an expert on this subject, and he has shared his knowledge with others through this book.
