Centres of Excellence for nano technology and compressor and pumps would be established here by Bharat Heavy Electricals's Corporate R&D unit, whose efforts enabled the company to achieve an impressive turnover of Rs. 6,334 crore during 2009-10 through in-house development of products and systems.
Giving an overview of the company's achievements in 2009-10 at a press conference here on Thursday, General Manager in-charge H. S. Jain, said during the year, BHEL spent Rs. 788 crore on R&D efforts.
The Rs. 8.20-crore centre for nano technology was expected to be functional by June 2011, while the Rs. 9.90-crore centre for compressors and pumps was in an advanced stage of completion. It had already established a similar centre for machine dynamics.
Mr. Jain said that plant-specific training simulators had been developed by BHEL during the year for Khaperkheda and Bhusawal thermal units in Maharashtra. In what has been described as a boon for combined cycle power plants, he said that a de-aerating condenser was developed.
Based on the novel concept and engineering design provided by Corporate R & D, a compact de-aerating condenser had been manufactured by the BHEL Ramachandrapuram unit for a typical 120 MW power plant.
The Corporate R&D unit also developed and tested 1 mVA (33/6.6 kV) power transformer designed with 77 K superconductors. “The prototype transformer has been engineered and assembled for the first time in the country,” he said. With this development, BHEL entered the era of applied superconductivity.
He said BHEL also got the first commercial order (Rs. 27 crore) for ‘Phase Shifting Transformer,' from APGENCO for its Kothagudem thermal unit. Among others, Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) placed an order of Rs. 12.27 crore for development and supply of a 200 kW, 250 rpm, high temperature superconducting (HTSC) motor for strategic naval application.
