Coir is green business

Above advertisement, published on the World Environment Day – June 5 with the following slogans, makes us thinking.

Use coir and coir mats which replace one million tonnes of plastic every year.

Save water - use coir pith.

Save soil - use coir geotextiles.

Save trees - use coir ply hoard.

Coir Board is a statutory body established by the Government of India under a legislation enacted by the Parliament namely Coir Industry Act, 1953 (45 of 1953) for the promotion and development of Coir Industry in India as a whole.

Its purpose is to provide a one-stop information resource on coir industry to all entrepreneurs dealing with coir and coir products.

Coir is a natural fibre extracted from husk of the coconut, with or without retting. It is highly stretchable, durable, strong and unaffected by moisture and dampness. It has been traditionally used in the making of ropes and mats. Also used in making carpets, fibre, pith/peat, rubberised coir, matting, yarn, curled coir, geo-textiles, rugs etc.

Coir pith is used in nurseries and floriculture farming, mainly due to its water retention quality for a longer period.

Rubberised coir is a coir pad sprayed with rubber latex or with natural rubber which bonds the fibres together to be used as upholstery padding and packaging.

Based on the quality of fibre used, coir yarn is available in different forms for various industrial and agricultural purposes.

More information on: www.coirboard.nic.in

Building a sweet home.

It is extremely important to use high grade steel in a construction of a house. The steel structure used in the construction should be of superior seismic resistance properties.

 

If you are going to build a residential house, here is some information which may be useful to give basic ideas about steels.

 

To create a concrete structure to bear all kinds of load and stresses, steel reinforcement/strengthening is used. This steel reinforcement is generally used in the form of bars or rods.

 

Bars are available in cold twisted deformed bars or TMT bars. TMT is short form of Thermo Mechanical Treatment, and is the latest technique.

 

Different grades of bars are available, like grade Fe 415, grade Fe 500 etc. Here, 415 and 500 indicate stresses of 415 N/mm² and 500 N/mm² respectively. Most commonly used is grade Fe 415.

 

Some companies produced TMT bars with low carbon levels than specified to get excellent ductility, high bendability and superior weldability. Like Fe 415 grade bars details from TATA TISCON is as under.

 

Chemistry	Unit	IS:1786	TATA TISCON*
		Fe 415
Carbon	%	0.03**max	0.17-0.24
Carbon equivalent  (C + Mn/6)	%	-	0.38 max
Sulphur	%	0.060 max	0.050 max
Phosphorous	%	0.060 max	0.045 max
S & P	%	0.110 max	0.090 max
Nitrogen	ppm	-	100 max
*(Typical Values for 90% of heats)
*(In case of weldable bars the carbon content should be 0.25% max)

 

 

Ductility is the property of metal which permits it to be reduced in cross sectional area without fracture. Bend tests are carried out to ensure that a metal has sufficient ductility to stand bending without fracturing. Due to lower carbon content, it has better welding capability. Although, a number of factors affect weldability including chemistry, surface finish, heat-treating tendencies, etc.

 

Some companies have brought TMT and corrosion resistant steel (CRS) bars with added features.

 

Bars are available in the size range of 8,10,12,16,20,22,25,28,32,36, and 40 mm. For general house constructions, bars of diameter 6 to 20 mm are used.

 

Here are some standard sizes and useful data of TATA TISKON products.

 

Section (mm)	Nominal weight (kg/meter)	Nominal length (Mts/MT approx)
8	0.395	2531
10	0.617	1620
12	0.888	1126
16	1.58	633
20	2.47	405
25	3.85	260
28	4.83	207
32	6.31	159
36	7.99	125
40	9.85	102

 

More information on:

 

http://www.buildnova.com/buildnovav3/productcatalogue/SteelBrocures/TataSteel.htm

http://www.askacc.com/reinforcement.asp