Review Study of Historical Iron and Steel making in Sri Lanka and its Future Trends

It has been reported that there is enough evidence to show that iron making industry was in existence in Sri Lanka in ancient times. This was revealed during the excavations carried out by the Department of Archaeology in Sri Lanka in the past. Some of the artifacts unearthed dates back to the 5'" Century BC; confirmed by the radiocarbon dating. Dr. Ananda Kumaraswamy in his report published in 1904, has stated that he had inspected an iron making foundry in Balangoda , where the feed raw material used was the iron ore(Limonite) itself, pulverized to the size of walnuts; and by subjecting it into a laborious process, to obtain iron which was impregnated with impurities. The authors have undertaken research by studying the above process and introducing the cupola process. Initially, iron ore pellet of size 1 to 2 cms was prepared by subjecting the ore from Ratnapura to a beneficiation process so as to impart porosity and strength. The raw pellets would be subjected to a metallisation process followed by reduction in a mini cupola furnace fabricated in the lab, and the resulting iron would be examined chemically, microscopically and X- ray diffraction studies