H&K Celebrates 'Silver Jubilee' in QST Technology

Since its inception when it was launched in 1985 with a paltry sum of Rs. 10,000, the H&K India turned out to be a trendsetter in Thermex Technology and elevated the Indian secondary rolling mills matching global standards. Recently, H&K has completed its 25 years in the service of the nation through its quality and relevant technologies under the stewardship of the Chief Managing Director, R K Markan.

Commenting on its spectacular achievements, Markan says,  "Today, H&K has grown up into a healthy and flourishing fruits bearing tree from the tiny seed that we had sowed 25 years ago and carefully caressed during this period. We have been advocating and also implementing proper energy utilization using our Thermex Systems at over 140 hot rolling mills in India and abroad. There have been many 'firsts' for us during this period. In this list we can include 'stop-start' shears, trough & grip tilters (as against manual handling) to permit use of larger billet/bloom weight resulting in improved yield and the automated bundling & binding systems for high production levels in the upgradation of steel rolling mills."

Elaborating on the journey in the Indian QST Technology, he added that since 1970 India has been totally dependent on CTD re-bars for all their RCC works. It was in early 1980s when I started visiting Germany for a discussion with H&K Germany and found that CTD re-bars were not being used in German civil construction because of their poor properties. Since then my concentration was only on searching the proper re-bars for civil construction works. Fortunately, H&K Germany signed  an agreement with the inventors of the patented Thermex technology in 1984. The task of introducing this unique re-bars technology in India was announced by the inventor of Thermex quenching technology Mr. Franz Tamm through H&K's Indian joint venture, H&K India. It took several years to change the mindset of Indian steel industry to opt for the Thermex QST re-bars but finally we succeeded, claimed Markan.

Dwelling further in details on the unique re-bars technology, he explained that Thermex is a revolutionary technology in terms of its usage, adaptability and end results. Thermex QST Systems and technology comes along with special hardware that is critical to ensure that the quenching and self- tempering process is correctly implemented. Each Thermex system is engineered to suit client's specific mill parameters. It therefore takes just one billet/bar to commission the system and achieve the desired results and properties. The Thermex technology is very precise, besides being worker-friendly. The workers have no role to play – other than to ensure that the water is turned on'.

In addition, Each Thermex Licensee is subjected to third party quarterly Quality Audit-done by Structwel. Anyone who does not adhere to the norms laid down by the Gemans runs the risk of having his Licence revoked.

The Thermex system is essentially designed to produce Grade 500 re-bars as per the international norms. A Thermex 500 Grade rebar denotes a bar with yield strength of 500 to 625 N/mm2 with an elongation of 16 to 25 percent and a stress ratio of 1.13 to 1.30.