Hindalco scores big on product innovation

The Aditya Birla Group (ABG) has cemented its leadership across diverse sectors through a laser-like focus on innovation. The conglomerate’s massive investments in research and development enable its Group companies to stay future-ready and cater to customers' evolving needs. And Hindalco, the Group’s metals flagship entity, exemplifies this innovation mindset.

In 2020-21, Hindalco invested over Rs7.9 billion on R&D, filed 259 new patents, and launched 32 products which generated over Rs1.65 billion in revenues. These investments made towards transforming the processes and compositions of Hindalco’s products are also revolutionising the global metals industry. We put the spotlight on some of Hindalco’s major innovations in recent years.

Tougher homegrown alloy for architectural windows

Hindalco has developed a new alloy for its architectural doors and windows. The alloy, named DuraniumTM, endows products from Hindalco’s Eternia Windows range with superior strength and surface properties to differentiate it from other system window brands. A tougher material, DuraniumTM shows a 35% higher yield strength against the minimum requirement and between 5-15% higher yields compared to the brand’s nearest competitors.

Conductor alloy for more efficient power lines

Used in power transmission lines , high temperature low sag (HTLS) conductors can withstand high operating temperatures without causing sag beyond permissible limits, thus allowing more current to pass safely.

In collaboration with the Group’s R&D arm — Aditya Birla Science and Technology Company Private Limited (ABSTC), Hindalco's team at its Mahan (Madhya Pradesh) plant developed a new aluminium zirconium alloy for HTLS wire rods for manufacturing power conductors. The electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of these rods meet rigorous international standards, and further customer tests are now in progress.

High-strength packaging containers

The pandemic created market demand for stronger semi-rigid containers, and Hindalco’s team rose to seize this opportunity. Its scientists designed a new alloy, 3SRC, which has higher strength percentage formability, lower energy footprint, and a high amount of recycled content. Using this new alloy, Hindalco has introduced multiple customised packaging products in 2020-21.

Aluminium foils that don’t break

Light gauge (LG) aluminium foils find application in flexible packaging, insulation, lidding and house foil. However, the low ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of these foils leads to breakage or inconvenience for customers.

In response to this challenge, Hindalco modified a rolling practice that significantly improved the UTS of LG foils without compromising on other aspects. What’s more, the new process was more energy-efficient than the legacy process. The innovation enabled Hindalco to scale up LG foil production for both domestic and export markets. It is also implementing the same process for manufacturing medium gauge blister and pharma packaging products.

Aluminium alloy circles for coated cookware

Aluminium alloy circles manufactured by Hindalco find a variety of applications in cookware. To address issues such as stretch lines in the cookware coating process, Hindalco reinvented its aluminium alloy circles to obtain optimal mechanical properties in the finished product. Subsequently, four different products were qualified with the material improvement.

Better aluminium LPG cylinders

While aluminium LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cylinders have numerous advantages like low weight and greater fuel-efficiency, there are also concerns related to the compatibility of aluminium with caustic, the cylinders’ ability to handle abuse, and their economic viability, to name a few.

Hindalco's Renukoot plant, which develops aluminium alloy circles for aluminium LPG cylinders globally, undertook a successful collaborative project that improved the design of aluminium cylinders such that they met the global standards for yield pressure, burst pressure, volumetric expansion and mechanical properties. It paved the way for a new Indian standard for aluminium gas cylinders, whose draft has been approved by the authorities.

Energy-saving technology for smelters

In line with the Group’s goal to optimise its energy consumption, Hindalco and ABSTC developed an in-house Cu-insert Collector Bar (CuCB) technology for its aluminium smelters located at Hirakud and Aditya Aluminium in Odisha, and Mahan Aluminium in Madhya Pradesh.

The CuCB technology has saved specific energy consumption of about 250-300 kWh/ton of aluminium and facilitated an increase in metal production. Hindalco has filed a patent application for the technology.

Treatment of phosphogypsum for use in the cement industry

The team at Hindalco developed a system to combine phosphogypsum – an industrial by-product – with lime to improve its acidity and fix its phosphorous pentoxide content, so as to make it suitable for use in the cement industry.

Extensive lab and plant trials by the team enabled it to discover that controlled dosing of lime to phosphogypsum improved the latter’s pH from ~1.5 to 6 and fixed 30-35% of free phosphorous pentoxide in the form of calcium phosphate. The conversion of free pentoxide to phosphate provides the added advantage by reducing its adverse effects during cement-making. The technique developed by Hindalco has already been commercialised, and so far, over one million tonnes of phosphogypsum have been used by cement plants.

Development of white hydrate (ONYX) grade Muri

Hindalco has developed deep white, clean, and translucent alumina hydrate. Branded ONYX, it finds application in the cast polymer industry.

Developing better-quality aluminium cans at faster speeds

Cans are one of the key applications of aluminium alloys globally. Aluminium is a preferred packaging option due to its high barrier properties, recyclability, lightness and other advantages. However, the know-how to develop world-class can body stock speedily and at high volume did not exist in India earlier. Therefore, Hindalco’s Hirakud plant worked closely with Novelis and its suppliers to develop this technology for the first time domestically.

The alloy design and casting process developed by the team has yielded significant success. Trials are now underway with domestic and global customers to position Hindalco as a top supplier of aluminium can body stock.