The research, development and scientific division, Tata Steel, has been conferred with the prestigious “Technology Day Meritorious Invention Award” by the National Research and Development Corporation (NRDC) at a glittering function held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The President of India, Mr A P J Abdul Kalam was the chief guest of the function and Kapil Sibal, minister of state for science, technology and ocean development, presided over the function and presented the award.

The function was organised jointly by the NRDC and the Development of Biotechnology (DBT). Tata Steel is the only company in the eastern region to get this award out of ten NRDC awards. The award was presented to Dr Ananya Mukhopadhyay, Dr Sudipta Sikdar, Saurabh Kundu and Ashwin Pandit, Tata Steel for their extraordinary invention on the development of the “On-line Property Prediction System for Hot Rolled Coil (OPPRESS)”. The joint award carries a cash amount of Rs 1,00,000 and individual certificates.

The OPPRESS system predicts mechanical properties of hot rolled coils produced from the hot strip mill (HSM) of the steel plants over the length and also through the thickness of the coil in real-time. The cost of the system is about Rs 10.5 lakh. The system not only reduces the delay in the time involved in testing, as the test results are available online but also produces good quality coils at cheaper cost. One unit of the system is functioning at the HSM of Tata Steel.

These awards were given to recognise inventors whose innovative ideas help change the quality of lives of the millions of people in India. Along with other awards given by Technology Development Board, the Department of Biotechnology and the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, the National Research and the Development Corporation presented Technology Day Awards 2004 to ten meritorious inventions.