India Establishes Automated Pinaka Rocket Assembly Line
India has quadrupled production rate of indigenous Pinaka rockets by building an automated assembly line at Ordnance Factory, Chandrapur.
Godrej & Boyce partnered with the company to establish the assembly line in 2016. The facility was inaugurated by Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on August 10. Godrej Tooling completed the entire project from designing a solution to installation and commissioning in a year. With this automated line, OF Chandrapur has been able to quadruple its production capacity for Pinaka rockets.
On August 19, six Pinaka rockets, fully manufactured by the private sector, were test fired in Pokhran. The rockets were built by the private sector after a technology transfer agreement with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Economic Times reported last week.
The new automated assembly line comes equipped with advanced safety features to handle rockets filled with explosives and live igniter. The key advantages for OF Chandrapur include deskilling of operations, real-time quality monitoring of production, automated safety features, 4X increase in productivity in addition to greater availability for the defence forces.
The Ordnance Factory Board had invited Godrej Tooling to undertake a study to determine the areas which could be automated at their works in Ambajhari, Chandrapur, and Bhusawal with specific proposals in consultation with various OFs for meeting their priority requirements. In response, the Godrej Tooling design team carried out extensive studies of current manufacturing processes which included in-depth interactions with the factory personnel to arrive at a list of operations that could be automated. This list included a project of automating the Pinaka rocket assembly line at Chandrapur.
To demonstrate the concept of automation as envisaged by Godrej Tooling, a full stage mock-up station was built. Extensive trials were carried out to prove that some of the complicated assemblies could be automated using Godrej Tooling solutions. It was only after witnessing successful trials that the OF team gave approval for the automated system.
Challenges to ensure safety and scale were paramount as the line handled rockets weighing 300kg filled with explosives and a live igniter. Hence, all electrical equipment had to be flame-proof and the handling had to be with minimum or no impact. Many components needed to be joined with each other where access was difficult, and the visibility was limited. Godrej Tooling designers and engineers created a novel solution to overcome these challenges as well as integrate the line with OF supplied equipment.
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