The commissioning of the FMS will enable the factory to meet the enhanced requirements of engines and spares

The engine manufacturing capacity for the battle tanks in the Indian Ordnance Board’s Engines Factory near Chennai has been more than doubled to 750 per annum.

It was earlier fixed at 350 engines per year. The Board Chairman Hari Mohan told reporters at the factory premises today, the capacity augmentation is to meet the increasing demand of the Indian Army.

He inaugurated the new Flexible Manufacturing System-FMS in the factory today. He said, the new system is the first to be installed in any of the Ordnance Factories in the country to help increase productivity.

The Engine Factory (Avadi) has state of the art machines, including the first FMS in the country. The machine has four large CNC machining centres connected by a common rail guided vehicle for handling 40 pallets and a 450-tool magazine. Any of the 20 types of V46, V92 and UTD engine parts can be machined flexibly in any of the 4 machines as decided by an advanced host computer in unmanned mode.

A laser-enabled tool breakage detection system, tool pre-setter, compressor, advanced CNC controller, coolant chiller, temperature control and compensation and a hydraulically operated fixture mechanism are some of the salient features of the machine.

The machine has an interactive dashboard facility for planning, scheduling and monitoring the work progress on a real time basis.

The General Manager of the factory R.Shyam Sunder said the FMS system has been ordered at the cost of Rs. 148.4 crores. He said the amount is less by Rs.50 crores as compared to the sanctioned cost.

The Engine Factory at Avadi is the only unit in the country dedicated to manufacturing fully indigenised engines for the Army’s Main Battle Tanks.