Frequently asked questions
Common questions about Laxcon Steels, its plants, its products and its quality systems. Anything not answered here can go to sales@laxconsteels.com or the enquiry form.
The company
Is Laxcon Steels a manufacturer or a trader?
Laxcon Steels is a manufacturer, not a trader. It melts its own steel, casts it, rolls it and finishes it. The Steel Melting Shop runs electric melting furnaces with an argon oxygen decarburisation converter, a ladle refining furnace, vacuum degassing, electroslag refining, a twin-strand continuous caster and bottom-poured ingot casting up to 22 MT.
Downstream are four semi-automatic cross-country hot rolling mills of 12, 14, 16 and 20 inches, PLC controlled heat treatment furnaces, and cold finishing lines for peeling, drawing, centreless grinding, polishing, chamfering and thread rolling. The full equipment list is on the technology page.
Testing is done in Laxcon's own NABL accredited laboratory rather than sent out, see quality. The company was founded in 1978.
Where is Laxcon Steels located?
Laxcon Steels' registered office and its melting and rolling division are at Plot No. 235, Sarkhej-Bavla Road NH 8A, Village Sarai, Taluka Sanand, Ahmedabad 382220, Gujarat.
Three more plants operate in the same Ahmedabad belt: the rolling and bright bar division at GIDC Kerala Industrial Estate, Bavla; a bright bar division at Moraiya, Sanand; and the Pipes and Tubes Division at Village Rohika off NH 8A. Offices are in Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad city.
Every address, with directions, is on the contact page.
What is Laxcon Steels' production capacity?
Laxcon Steels' Steel Melting Shop is rated at 140,000 metric tonnes a year.
Casting is by twin-strand continuous caster of 9/16 metre radius, PLC operated with mould electromagnetic stirring and automatic mould level control, and by bottom-poured ingot casting up to 22 MT a piece. Heat treatment runs from three 6 MT solution annealing furnaces to a 40 MT soft annealing furnace, with electrical tempering furnaces of 10 MT and 18 MT and one furnace built to take bars up to 7 metres long. See technology.
Who runs Laxcon Steels?
Gopal Gupta is Managing Director of Laxcon Steels and heads the second generation of the family. Vinod Gupta is Joint Managing Director, covering strategic planning, policies and corporate affairs.
The company has been family-run since 1978 and a third generation is now contributing. More on the about page, and the wider workforce on the people page.
Products and sizes
What does Laxcon Steels make?
Laxcon Steels makes stainless, alloy and special steel long products. The catalogue runs to 19 families.
Semi-finished: continuous cast billets and blooms, and forging quality ingots. Hot rolled: round bars, round cornered squares, HRAP flat bars, HRAP equal and unequal angles, channels and T-profile. Cold finished: bright bars, square bright bars, hexagonal bright bars, cold-drawn flat bars, precision shaft quality bars, proof machined bars and threaded bars.
Duplex steel and precipitation hardening steels are grade families supplied across those profiles, and the catalogue also carries seamless pipe and mother hollow.
What sizes and lengths does Laxcon roll?
Laxcon rolls from 5 mm bright bar to 550 mm proof machined bar, in lengths up to 8.5 metres. The range by family, as published on each product page:
| Product | Size range | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Bright Bars | 5 mm to 115 mm | Up to 6.5 m |
| Square Bright Bars | 12.70 mm to 55 mm | Up to 6 m |
| Hexagonal Bright Bars | 16 mm to 55 mm across flats | Up to 6 m |
| Cold-Drawn Flat Bars | 20 mm to 100 mm wide | 2 m to 6 m |
| Forged & Proof Machined Bars | 120 mm to 550 mm | Up to 6 m |
| Precision Shaft Quality (PSQ) Bars | 8 mm to 81 mm | Up to 6.4 m |
| Threaded Bars | M 6 to M 45 | Up to 6 m |
| Hot Rolled Round Bars | 16 mm to 125 mm | Up to 8 m |
| Hot Rolled Round Cornered Squares (RCS) Bars | 45 RCS to 100 RCS | Up to 8 m |
| HRAP Flat Bars | 20 mm to 150 mm wide | Up to 6.4 m |
| HRAP Equal Angles | 20 × 20 mm to 125 × 125 mm | Up to 6.4 m |
| HRAP Unequal Angles | 25 × 15 mm to 100 × 75 mm | Up to 6.4 m |
| Channels | 50 × 25 mm to 101.6 × 50.8 mm | Up to 6.4 m |
| T-Profile | 50 × 50 × 5 mm | Up to 6.4 m |
| Continuous Cast Billets / Blooms | 120 mm to 300 mm, square, rectangular or round | Up to 8.5 m |
| Pipes and Tubes | OD 15.88 mm to 60.3 mm, wall 1.24 mm to 6 mm | 2 m to 10 m |
Forging quality ingots are quoted by piece weight rather than by length and are available up to 22,000 kg a piece in square, fluted or round formats.
Duplex and precipitation hardening are grade families rather than profiles, so their pages list grades and standards in place of a size range.
What tolerances, straightness and surface finish can Laxcon hold on bright bars?
Bright bars are supplied to h7, h8, h9, h10, h11, k12 and k13, or to ASTM A484. Straightness is held to 0.5 mm per metre and surface finish to Ra 0.2 micron (8.7 RMS) maximum.
Grit polish is K240, K320 or to the customer's requirement. Ends are chamfered at 30, 45 or 60 degrees, or left plain without burrs or sharp edges. Bars can be cold drawn, centreless ground, peeled and polished, rough peeled or smooth turned, and heat treated by soft annealing, solution annealing, oil and water quenching, tempering and ageing. Specifications are met to EN, DIN, JIS, ASTM, BS, ASME, GOST and AISI, including NACE MR0175 and MR0103. The full sheet is on the bright bars page.
Precision shaft quality bars are held tighter: h7, h8, h9, j6, f7 and f8, with straightness of 0.015 inch TIR per 10 feet.
What is the difference between a bright bar and an HRAP bar?
A bright bar is cold finished. It starts as a hot rolled bar and is then peeled, drawn, ground or polished at room temperature, which achieves the tight tolerance class, the 0.2 micron surface and the 0.5 mm per metre straightness.
HRAP means hot rolled, annealed and pickled. The section is rolled hot, solution annealed to restore corrosion resistance and then pickled in acid to strip the mill scale, which leaves a clean matte grey mill surface. Tolerances are the hot rolled classes, ASTM A484 with EN 10058 for flats and EN 10056 for angles, not the cold drawn ones.
So bright bars go into machined and precision components, while HRAP flats, angles and channels are the default for structural and fabrication work.
What is the difference between a billet, a bloom and an ingot?
Billets and blooms are cast continuously. The twin-strand caster of 9/16 metre radius pours them square, rectangular or round from 120 mm to 300 mm in lengths up to 8.5 metres, and they go on to be rolled, hot forged or ring rolled. See continuous cast billets and blooms.
Ingots are cast one piece at a time and bottom poured, filled from below through a runner system so the steel rises without splashing and the surface stays clean. They are available up to 22,000 kg a piece in square, fluted and round formats and feed open die forging, ring rolling and re-rolling. See forging quality ingots.
The distinction is the casting route and the section it produces, not the steel itself.
What is a round cornered square (RCS) bar, and what is it for?
A round cornered square (RCS) bar is a hot rolled square section with radiused corners, supplied 45 RCS to 100 RCS in lengths up to 8 metres.
It is drop forging feedstock. The bars are rolled free of surface defects and cracks with a uniform internal structure, 100 percent ultrasonically tested and supplied spot ground or fully ground; forging shops use them for flanges, fittings and open and closed die forgings. The radiused corner also removes the sharp edge. See round cornered squares.
Quality and testing
What certifications and approvals does Laxcon Steels hold?
Management systems held by Laxcon Steels: ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018 certified by TÜV NORD CERT, and IATF 16949:2016 and AS 9100 by DQS.
Marine, offshore and pressure: ABS rolled bar facility and process approval for rolled bar for machinery components in marine applications; Lloyd's Register EMEA approval as a manufacturer of steel plates, strip, sections and bars; DNV approval of manufacturer for rolled steel products; CE marking and Pressure Equipment Directive approval through TÜV NORD Systems; and NORSOK M-650 through TÜV India.
Indian standards: Well Known Steel Maker under the Central Boilers Board, and IS 17875:2022, IS 6603:2001, IS 14650:2023 and IS 15997:2012 from the Bureau of Indian Standards. Alongside those sit the NABL laboratory accreditation, a Green Steel certificate, an Environmental Product Declaration, a CBAM letter of conformance, a REACH and RoHS statement and BIR Gold membership.
All 24 certificates are shown on the quality page and can be downloaded, ungated, from downloads.
Does Laxcon Steels have its own testing laboratory?
Laxcon Steels has its own NABL accredited laboratory at Sanand, Ahmedabad, assessed to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 under certificate TC-12337 in the testing field, valid to 27 September 2029. Testing is done there rather than sent out.
It holds a wet laboratory for chemical analysis, mechanical testing with a profile projector, automatic impact testing, and metallography with an optical microscope and image analyser. The accreditation certificate is linked from the quality page.
What testing and inspection does a heat go through before it ships?
A heat is checked for chemistry first. Samples are taken during the pouring of ingots directly from the ladle, and optical emission spectrometers spark a prepared sample to confirm the full chemistry of the heat against the grade before it is cast. A Leco gas analyser measures dissolved hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen; carbon apparatus determines carbon on the melt; and incoming scrap is screened with a Rad Eye meter for radioactive contamination before it can reach the furnace.
On the finished piece, mobile handheld spectrometers give positive material identification without cutting a sample, which is how grade is confirmed at despatch.
Quality control also covers mechanical testing, metallography with an image analyser, impact testing, corrosion testing, and magnetic particle, ultrasonic and liquid penetrant inspection. RCS bars are 100 percent ultrasonically tested, and eddy current testing runs on the cold finishing lines. The inspection facilities are listed on the quality page.
Why do the specifications say bars are free from radioactive elements, mercury and lead contamination?
The declaration that bars are free from radioactive elements, mercury and lead contamination rests on an inspection step: a Rad Eye meter screens incoming scrap for radioactive contamination before it can reach the melt.
The same declaration appears in the supply conditions on the product pages, alongside grade confirmation by positive material identification with handheld spectrometers.
Buying from Laxcon
How do I request a quotation, and what does Laxcon need to know?
To request a quotation from Laxcon Steels, use the enquiry form, write to sales@laxconsteels.com, or call +91-11-4295-2500.
A quotable enquiry carries the grade, or the intended application; the profile, whether round, square, hexagon, flat, angle, channel, T-profile, RCS, billet or ingot; the size or size range; the tolerance class and finish; length and end condition; the heat treatment condition; the quantity in tonnes; the certificate required; and the delivery destination.
If the grade is not settled yet, the grades reference covers 500+ grades, and each product page lists the grades supplied in that profile.