A mechanical engineering graduate, Lalit Chandra Trivedi was with the National Thermal Power Corporation before joining the 

Indian Railways, wherein he served for 38 years. During his tenure, he undertook many management courses related to the infrastructure industry at HEC Paris as well as the Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburgh, USA. He is also a fellow of Institute of Mechanical Engineers London, which he is currently heading as the chairman. In this role, he is promoting innovation, sustainability and recyclability in Industry 4.0.

Trivedi was the head of the production team, which made the first Vande Bharat train for Indian Railways, and played a pioneering role in the extensive use of stainless steel. 

Which are the primary industries that heavily rely on stainless steel? 

The role of stainless steel is increasing day by day. Initially, it was in a few sectors. But today, the scenario has changed.

For instance, when a foot over bridge at a railway station in Mumbai’s suburbs collapsed, leading to a stampede and the death of several people, the railways took the decision to make all foot over bridges in stainless steel. Similarly, with the train bogies, too, there has been a change. Now, no train is manufactured in India without stainless steel. Some attempts were made to make them of aluminium, but so far, it has not been a success. So, everything connected with the railways, which is manufactured in India, is of stainless steel. And across the globe too, stainless steel is the material of choice for the railway industry.

Apart from the shell or structure, which is made of stainless steel, there are certain areas where corrosion plays an important role, such as toilets and water tanks.

While aluminium is lighter, stainless steel has greater corrosion resistance and it is less energy intensive. A lot of electricity is required for manufacturing aluminium, unlike stainless steel, which also has recyclability and longer life.

Till about a decade ago, our coaches were made of regular steel and had a life expectancy of 25 years. Now stainless steel is used to make coaches, wagons and freight carriers and the life expectancy has gone up to 40 years. It is a major contribution to the efficiency of the production and the whole economics is affected by this.

Moreover, India has many desert areas. When desert sand hits a moving train with ferocity, it leads to corrosion. While aluminium cannot withstand that penetration of the sand particles, stainless steel stands out.

Similarly, in other industries such as construction and kitchenware, due to its cleanability and hygiene factors, stainless steel is the material of choice. With regards to piping and electrification of railways, stainless steel is playing an increasing role.

What are the most common applications of stainless steel in terms of mechanical engineering? 

I am from the railways, and initially I had worked in power plants. When I started with NTPC, at the thermal power stations, I found that all the turbine blades, which are the important parts of the boiler as well as all the other critical equipment, were made of stainless steel.

When I switched over to the railways, I found that initially we were using corten steel, but by the turn of the century, we switched over to stainless steel. And since then, stainless steel has not looked back. It has paid us huge dividends in terms of longer life and lesser maintenance. The fact that it is recyclable and durable makes it the preferred material of choice. 

Can you throw more light on how stainless steel is a sustainable material? 

First of all, the energy required to produce stainless steel compared to aluminium is much less. In a country like India, 

where 75 per cent of the electricity consumed is generated by burning coal. So, if you are doing anything that results in less burning of coal, you are directly saving the environment. Secondly, stainless steel has longer life, so the net requirement of additional production comes down. Thirdly, losses due to corrosion are avoided.

But the most important part is safety. Ever since we have switched to stainless steel, the number of casualties in a railway accident have drastically come down. Earlier the coaches which were not made of stainless steel, they used to become weak over the period of time because of corrosion and other things. And the impact of the collision or any accident, they were not able to take. So now with this use of stainless steel, the casualty figure has come down.

So it has boosted the safety of trains, people who travel in trains, and the other structures like foot over which you must have seen if you have been to Bombay, the evening rush, the morning rush, when a lot of people take the foot over to go from one station to another, there the real role of stainless steel comes into and all the skyscrapers, the Statue of Liberty and all those, the Statue of Unity and other, any skyscraper, we just cannot imagine without the stainless steel being there. So it has acquired, it is really playing a dominant role in all the modern industries wherever the structure, strength of the structure is involved. Absolutely.

Sir, you already mentioned the Vande Bharat trains in which stainless steel is extensively used. Any other such example comes to mind where you see stainless steel being predominantly used? I am basically finding that in the, as I told you in the construction industry, in the chemical industry, in the refineries, the stainless steel is, in fact, in some areas of shipping also, containers, containers people are making of stainless steel for the same purpose, they are long lasting. And anything which is moving, the only area which it has not touched is the airplanes, where the weight plays a major role.

But and now with the super alloys and other things coming up in the aerospace sector, the missile sector, the defense area, it has mind boggling penetration of stainless steel has taken place. So we are talking about super alloy here and there are a lot of innovations that are continuously being done. So are there any recent advancements in stainless steel, in the technology of manufacturing it that we found promising? You see, first of all, the use of the whole process has become more sustainable, the energy requirement has come down.

And one important thing which has taken place is the machining. Earlier, one of them, in fact, when we introduced, you see, the predecessor of Vande Bharat Cranes was the LHB coaches, the link Hoffman-Bush technology of high speed coaches of Indian Railways. When I started using those materials for LHB coaches, one of the major problems and which our technical staff and other engineers used to face is the machine to weld.

Stainless steel used to be a challenge. You need to have a laser cutting machine, you just cannot gas cut stainless steel, you needed a spot where you couldn’t just weld it, you needed spot welding machines. So there were special equipment were needed and if anything goes wrong, so to set right in case non-stainless steel, it was possible to maneuver it.

So then I interacted with the stainless steel industry and I told them that the biggest challenge for you is to enable the technical technician on the shop floor to be able to maneuver machining, welding of stainless steel. And I’m thankful to the stainless steel industry. Now, the equipments have come, the machining processes have improved and the productivity of the machining process, productivity of the way the things are constructed out of stainless steel has really taken a jump.

Great. So my next question is about the institute’s role. So how is the Institute of Mechanical Engineers involved in promoting research and development for stainless steel? You see, Kanishka, we are making committees for basically and we are holding a series of lectures.

We are training people on how to handle stainless steel, how to put it to greater use and we are constantly interacting with institutes of higher learning like I was advising Institute of Science, Bangalore for over a year. Even now I’m connected with a few startups of IISc Bangalore and our aim always remains that the institute handles this head-on, these problems which people using stainless steel are facing in the field. And so with the and promoting innovation in the use of stainless steel, promoting the solutions, helping the committees to devise solutions for better and more productive and sustainable use of stainless steel.

So we have a calendar of training program. We apart from interaction with the institutes of higher learning, we are holding workshops where we teach these people, the young youngsters. There is youngsters forums where the people are awarded, rewarded for coming out with ideas in the field of mechanical engineering in general, stainless steel in particular and how we can help the society through the use of this wonderful material.

So, what kind of challenges do you foresee for the use of stainless steel today? Yeah, that is a very great question because challenges are there and in the coming decade, challenges are going to because the polymers are coming up in a major way. Aluminium, the cost of aluminium production is coming down, which is one of the biggest competitors of stainless steel and the requirement is for stronger material with lesser weight. Like you see why stainless steel is so popular in India for the railways as compared to other countries like some European countries are now 50-50, some use aluminium, some use stainless steel.

One of the reasons Indian railways is heavily dependent on stainless steel is the fact that our tracks are not capable of running high-speed trains. The moment our tracks like Mumbai, Ahmedabad bullet train project is coming up and whenever we talk of speeds higher than 200 kmph, our fastest train runs at 160 kmph. So, the moment the barrier of 200 comes, then the weight plays a very important role and worldwide it has been found that the aluminium acquires an edge over speeds higher than 200 kmph.

So, some methods have to be devised so that the, if we can further bring down the weight of stainless steel per unit of strength to compete with, although in Indian context I don’t see that happening in near future, but that is the long-term challenge. The second thing is the formability and the handling has to be further improved so that the fabrication process out of stainless steel is economical, faster and more efficient compared to other, because you see aluminium’s formability is great. There, the stainless steel scores less marks compared to aluminium.

So, that is the area where a lot of work has to be done and the polymers, now polymers are suddenly entering our life, anything which used to be of metal a few years back, we find that almost everything is of polymer. So, in fact, your, this attempt of stainless steel today, this, it’s a good forum because the stainless steel industry, what happens, the person who is inside the industry, he remains so much busy with his work that he is not able to look outside the window and see the challenges coming on. So, and I also like that other venture of stainless steel industry ISDA, Indian Stainless Steel Development Association.

So, there has to be a greater connection of stainless steel industry with the ground by conducting market surveys, ground level issues which industry is facing in the use of stainless steel and what more is people, engineers expect from stainless steel at the application level and interaction, like there should be a seat for stainless steel in leading institutions like Roorkee, IITs, Institute of Science, so that the academics, academicians also play a part and their knowledge is made use of to improve and make it, make stainless steel structure more sustainable, economic and stronger. Well, so despite of these challenges, we cannot deny the fact that the demand for stainless steel is only growing, the applications are growing. So, do you think the Indian stainless steel industry is equipped to tackle this kind of demand? In the major challenge in the manufacture of stainless steel is the availability of critical elements like nickel and chromium.

India has to import these metals. So, the industry has to set up a long term sustainable supply solutions for the crucial metals like nickel and chromium which are added to the steel to make it stainless steel and the cost. You see, today’s global benchmark in any sector including stainless steel are provided by China.

So, your cost of production has to be competitive to China. Second thing, if you see the companies which are involved in stainless steel today are General Stainless Steel. I think they must be having the larger than lion’s share of more than 60-70% share of the stainless steel industry.

Then Salem Steel Plant of Farooq Shaikh Steel Authority and maybe some other minor players. But the number of players are less. So, the installed capacity to produce, otherwise we will start and then the moment the in-house production, the indigenous production is not there, then there is always pressure on the government to permit import.

And moment you import and then the competition starts and what is the cost of import and all that. So, second thing, important thing is that recyclability. It is possible to recycle stainless steel and it will save a lot of other issues also.

So, a lot of efforts have to be spent towards the recycling of the old stainless steel structures so that they can be put to, they can recycle and the product and the type of stainless steel which is needed today by the industry that we are able to produce. So, the enhancing the additional production, sourcing the logistic supply chains for the nickel, chromium and other particular items, molybdenum etc. and this recyclability.

So, once you strengthen these areas, you are right, the demand is there and the local indigenous production has to jack up to meet those requirements. Right. So, in your capacity as the chairman of the institute, are you in any contributing to the policies or the regulations that are being put in place for stainless steel? You see, I am on LinkedIn and I frequently write and my posts are there and I have written a lot of articles on stainless steel also and I have got about 30,000 plus followers on the LinkedIn.

I am connected with my old colleagues in the railways and the other government sector. So, I keep this, my views are sought by academia, by I am going for lectures to IIMs and National Academy of Indian Railways at Nair, Institute of Science and other places of learning. So, through this, I try to contribute to the growth in general of industry in the country and to sectors like stainless steel in particular.

And as I told you, I was advising general stainless steel for almost a year. Yeah, right. That brings us to the end of the interview.

So, you have answered all my questions in great detail and it was great interacting with you. Thank you so much for doing this for stainless today and we hope to have a really long and mutually beneficial relationship with you in the future. Nice meeting you, nice interacting with you.

It was a pleasure. Thank you so much, sir. Have a nice day.

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