The
Indian touch
Rear
Admiral KC Sekhar, discusses the needs of the Indian Navy and its keenness
to develop an affinity with the local fluid power fraternity
Take
any field of the industry, be it oil and natural gas, power generation,
agriculture, steel, paper, mining or transportation and you will find
that fluid power systems form its backbone. And it is no surprise that
the Indian fluid power industry has, in its own growth, contributed
immensely to the economic growth of the country. The enterprise in the
Indian fluid power industry merits appreciation for exhibiting good
foresight and resilience to adapt to emerging trends, be it the compliance
with the requirements of the quality systems or the exposure to the
global competition, prompted by the liberalisation of the economy. To
quote the specific example from the pump industry it is estimated that
the production of pumps in the country is presently of the order of
Rs 2500 crore, produced by some 500 odd manufacturers of large, medium
and small scales. It is also estimated that roughly about 25 per cent
of the generated power is spent on driving these pumps in both domestic
and industry sectors. These statistics point to the great responsibility
bestowed upon this sector in the role of an industry driver. Specifically
with respect to the Navy, fluid power, or more specifically, hydraulic
power is the backbone of all Naval warships today. From controllable
pitch propellers to stabilisers and steering gear and from sophisticated
submarine applications to state-of-theart controls of weapon systems
and main engines, hydraulic power has given our fighting ships the speed,
accuracy and efficiency, which is very vital in today’s modern
warfare. This article is an endeavour to appraise the industry of the
applications of fluid power in the Indian Navy and how the Navy is looking
forward to gathering support of the Indian industry in its indigenisation
efforts. Fluid power systems find a wide range of applications in the
Indian Navy, so much so that at present there is no Indian Naval ship
without the use of Fluid power. This clearly implies that the Indian
Navy presents a big market to our industry for Fluid Power Systems.
Presently our fluid power needs are being met through the equipment
and systems, which were mostly acquired from abroad, or in case of indigenously
built ships, from collaborations between Indian and foreign firms. Technical
support and spare support in both these cases has been an area of concern
for the Indian Navy due to its inability to source them locally. Indian
naval ships operate in some of the most hostile conditions in the world.
The tropical waters are the most saline amongst the oceans of the world.
Together with high humidity and temperature, the marine environment
in Indian Ocean region presents a lethal atmosphere for any engineering
system. The fluid systems and components fitted onboard need to be rugged
to ensure failproof operations in these conditions. The Indian Navy
has encountered a number of problems in the indigenous shipbuilding
programme due to these environmental conditions. For example, we found
the sea water systems onboard the destroyers deteriorating at a higher
pace than expected. Defect analysis undertaken on these pipelines has
attributed the problem to the specific grade of 90-10 cupro-nickel material
used for these pipes. For the next generation of warships we are using
a different grade of cupro-nickel pipelines to improve efficiency.
Problem areas
Let us now come address the applications of hydraulic power in the Indian
Navy and the problem areas. Controllable Pitch Propellers (CPP) are
used in many Naval ships, which are propelled by diesel engines. In
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