Exploring the departments

Three weeks have passed and the last week was same as previous two weeks in terms of both the hectic schedule as well as learning experience. It was devoted to the Engine component repair system (ECRS), General engineering section (GES) and Central scientific instrument organization (CSIO).

I had already learnt about the helicopters engines and now it was the time to know about the overhauling of the engine of Mi8 & AN32. I went to the ECRS lab where this was done. There I met with Sq Ldr Kuldeep who showed me different bays and told me everything about the overhauling of the engine which basically has 19 components.
He told me about the importance and need of an engineer in this section as some sort of innovative ideas are required here. I also saw the Jig made by HAL and used for the testing of the engine under simulated conditions for various parameters. There were some Jigs which have been brought from Russia in 1960’s and are still working in good conditions.

After this I went to the GES which is considered to be the heart of the BRD. It has seven bays-Heat Treatment and Welding Shop, Machine Shop, Organic Shop, Fastener Shop, Rubber Seal Bay, Ratable Bay and Sheet Metal Bay. This section was very interesting as it was related to my field and I learned a lot about the manufacturing of various components of the helicopter. There were many CNC machines such as EDM machine, Milling machine etc. The welding shop has facility for Magnesium welding also. Rubber bay was the most interesting one and in this bay the rubber seals are made. But still there are some bays in GES which are not yet explored and I will do that in the next week.

There was also a special visit to CSIO which is a part of CSIR (central scientific instrument research). It is the body for the design & development of defense related instrument. Here firstly I went to the Environment Monitoring Control Division where I learned about various instruments used for measuring environmental pollution. Some of them are Smoke density meter, Turbidity meter, high volume sampler, Chemilumiscent tester for nitrogen oxides, Sulphur dioxide analyzer, CO analyzer, Infrared gas analyzer etc. After this I went to the research lab where I saw HUD (Head-up-display) which is used in fighter aircrafts. HUD is the most important instrument developed by CSIO and it has caused a revolution in the whole world.

To conclude I would say that it was one more productive week at IAF-3BRD and I have learned a lot. And now only one more week of observational training is left after which I will start my project. And I hope that this week would give me all the information and knowledge about the 3BRD which I haven’t got till now.