The next developmental thrust was on reduction in the quantity of steel used in RCC through the development of high strength rebars of 500 N/mm² - a persistent demand from civil engineers.  

The steel industry first developed, in the late 1960s, the cold twisted deformed (CTD) rebars generally in the yield strength range of around 400 N/mm² with elongation values of 14-15%. Since high strength was achieved at the cost of ductility, higher strength CTD bars did not gain global acceptance as elongation values dropped to 12 % or less. The demand of civil engineers for rebars of yield strength 500 N/mm² with good ductility & weldability remained unfilled. The other drawback of CTD rebars was that the surface stresses due to twisting led to a high corrosion rate.

Europe, where the CTD process was developed, gave up its use in the 1970s, a few years after its development. But in India, the story was different. Introduced in 1970, the CTD bars gained a strong foothold despite the findings in Europe. The closed market conditions prevailing at that time helped matters in this regard - it appears that we only appreciated the significant savings from use of CTD bars of 415 N/mm² and ignored the drawbacks. Mr. R. N. Raikar, President of the India Chapter of the American Concrete Institute, at his opening remarks in the seminar on ‘Reinforcement – Today & Tomorrow’ held in Mumbai in June 2003, lamented that “fewer repairs were required in buildings prior to the use of CTD bars. Today, the repair of buildings has become a specialised industry”.

The objective of guaranteed minimum 500 N/mm² yield strength with adequate ductility for seismic zones was finally met through the development of the “Quenching & Tempering” technology in early 1980s. 

Two such processes were developed in Europe, Thermex and Tempcore, and both received world patents – and global acceptance amongst the civil engineers because it met all their requirements. The steel mills all over have increasingly resorted to these unique technologies and demand for such rebars continues to increase.