Director, DMRL delivers Platinum Jubilee Lecture at NML

Jamshedpur , May 27 : Samir V. Kamat, outstanding scientist & director, Defence Materials Research Laboratory (DMRL) delivered the first Platinum Jubilee Lecture on the topic, �Aero Engines: Materials and Manufacturing Processes� at the auditorium of CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory.

Dr. Kamat gave an overview of aero engines materials, status, future advanced materials and challenges ahead and deliberated the following in a nut shell.

The area of Research & Development of �Defence Research & Development Organization� (DRDO) is strictly confined to Platforms, propulsions, weapons, ammunitions, supporting systems. The fundamental responsibilities of DMRL is to cater the materials research in the development of those systems on behalf of DRDO.

The government of India has mandated the delivery Technology rather than confinement into research articles, papers & patents. So, there is a need to interact with premiere Laboratories/Institutions and call for future collaboration with R&D Laboratory like NML.

He discussed about indigenously developed KAVERI engine technology although the production of engine did not transpire, but several new materials were developed and produced with the help of sister Laboratory, Mishra Dhatu Nigam (MIDHANI), Hyderabad.

The development and production of New Material takes usually 15-20 years span due to rigorous certification processes involved for the development of aero engines materials.

DMRL has developed various in the areas of Vacuum investment casting technology for aerofoils& Non-aerofoil, Thermal Barrier Coatings, Aero engine disc, Nickel based alloy, Self-sufficiency in Titanium based alloys, Titanium sponge for aero engines.

Many alloys and materials were developed at Laboratory Scale in India but could not be produced due to lack of testing and infrastructure facilities as well as small volume of production.

Advanced materials used in aero engines are Polymer matrix composite, Titanium-aluminides, Rare earth addition to thermal barrier coatings, Ceramic Matrix Composites, Chromium based alloys.

Advance manufacturing process in aero engines are Bladed Disc (BLISK), Bladed Ring (BLING), Laser peening, Inertia welding, Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME), 3D printing (Additive Manufacturing. New Challenges ahead are limited Infrastructure, Limited knowledge, small volume of production and large capital investment.