Scripting a new chapter in the much-debated Public Private Partnership (PPP) in aerospace and defence, the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), a wing of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research here, is ready to unveil a product that will propel educational R&D in the country.
The first indigenous lab scale autoclave for aerospace applications is ready to be shipped out of NAL to the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K). While the design of the autoclave is by NAL, the mechanical systems have come from UCE, Mumbai, and the control systems from Datasol, Bangalore.
During a visit to the NAL’s Centre for Societal Missions and Special Technologies (CSMST), Dr G N Dayananda, chief scientist, told Express that the lab scale autoclave is being built at nearly half the cost of imported ones. Manipal Institute of Technology and Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, will also get these autoclaves soon.“The first lab scale autoclave will be unveiled during the autoclave user meet at NAL on September 3. A large autoclave order has been bagged against stiff competition from established European and American firms, after due technical qualification,” Dr Dayananda said.
According to Dr K Sham Sunder, Honorary Managing Director, NALTech, the efforts of Indian scientists in developing a “desi” lab scale autoclave should mitigate the imports, if not totally stop, saving precious foreign exchange. “We will deliver the next one in nine months and our expertise have forced the foreign vendors to substantially reduce their prices. The successful operation of this PPP model must pave the way for more such initiatives, exploiting the strengths of our public sector and marketing and production capabilities of the private sector,” Dr Sham, a seasoned campaigner with the Tejas programme, said.
Due to the embargoes on import in the early 80s, NAL had developed a large aerospace autoclave for Tejas. “We also took up the challenge later to develop much bigger autoclaves for Tejas and today they have become the workhorse at HAL,” said GM Kamalakannan, a principal scientist with the CSMST.