INDUSTIAL VISIT TO

BRAHMOS AEROSPACE
TRIVANDRUM LIMITED
20 th September 2014

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SPACE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

INDEX

NO.
1

CONTENT
FOREWORD

PAGE
2

BRAHMOS AT A GLANCE

NDT

PRECISION AND GENERAL MACHINE SHOP

QUALITY CONTROL

SURFACE TREATEMENT

11

APPENDIX

15

FOREWORD
The AeroClub, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) organized an Industrial
visit to BrahMos Aerospace Trivandrum Ltd. (BATL), on 20th September, 2014 for members of the
Club. Total 19 student members along with 4 faculty members joined this industrial visit. The visit
was organized with the prior permission and guidance of Dr. Praveen Krishna, Assistant Professor,
IIST. Prof. Pradeep Kumar, Prof. Deepu, Prof. B.R. Vinoth and Prof. Satheesh accompanied us
with this industrial visit.
We would like to express our deepest appreciation to Mr. Rajeev Madhvan who continually and
convincingly conveyed the spirit of adventure and guided us throughout the visit explained us every
part of BrahMos. We would like to thank our Professors and Institute without whom the visit
wouldn`t have been a possibility at the first instance.

BRAHMOS AT A GLANCE
According to the late Edwin Starr, war is good for absolutely nothing. They create havoc and loss to
mankind on a large scale. Wars put pressure on the resources of the country making them work hard
to juice out the maximum from even the little that they possess which tends to accelerate
technological development to adapt tools for the purpose of solving specific military needs. During
the Persian Gulf war, cruise missiles emerged as a key innovation which led India to look forward
in the direction of having its own Cruise missile. As a result in February 1998, the then President of
India A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and Deputy Defence Minister of Russia N.V. Mikhailov signed an intergovernmental agreement in Moscow to establish BrahMos Aerospace for producing the BrahMos
missiles. The missile is named after two rivers, Brahmaputra of India and Moskva of Russia. First
of all, what is a Cruise missile? It is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and uses a
lifting wing and a propulsion system, usually a jet engine to allow sustained flight. The Defence
Research and Development Organization (DRDO) of India and the Federal State Unitary Enterprise
NPO Mashinostroyenia (NPOM) of Russia have together formed the BrahMos Aerospace Private
Limited under BrahMos Aerospace. BrahMos Aerospace production centre first started
at Hyderabad in Andra Pradesh. In 2007, BrahMos Aerospace acquired Kerala Hitech Industries
Limited at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala and converted it into BrahMos Aerospace Trivandrum
Limited which made it into the second missile making unit for a world-class missile facility with
system integration and testing. It is an AS9100 company, highest certificate given to any Aerospace
industry and is the biggest airborne launcher manufacturer in India. The symbol for BrahMos
Aerospace Trivandrum Ltd. shows that the missile is so powerful that it can even break Shivling;
Shivling depicting the epitome of power as per Indian mythology. The missile can be configured for
land, sea and aerial platforms. The technical specifications include:
Maximum range -290km
Maximum velocity Mach -2.5 2.8
Warhead -300kg
Weight -3000kg
Length -8.4m
Diameter -0.6m
Unit cost -US$ 2.73 million
BrahMos is powered by a two-stage propulsion system. A solid propellant booster provides the
initial acceleration and then the liquid-fuelled ramjet system helps it in reaching supersonic cruise
speed. The air-breathing ramjet propulsion is more fuel-efficient in comparison with conventional
rocket propulsion which provides the BrahMos with a longer range over similar missiles powered
by rocket propulsion. The missile follows Fire and forget principle of operation i.e. it has inbuilt
inertial sensors like gyroscopes and accelerometers, GPS and radar which requires no guidance
system after being launched.

4
It has the capability of attacking surface targets as low as 10 meters in altitude to as high as 14000
meters. The first BrahMos missile was test fired from the integrated test range at Chandipur in
Orissa Coast in June 2001. After that, missile has been numerous times. In 2004 and 2007, the land
based BrahMos block-1 was tested for Indian army in Pokhran, Rajasthan and then was inducted
into army on June 21, 2007. In 2008, BrahMos Aerospace acquired Indian state-owned firm Keltec
to manufacture and integrate BrahMos components and missile systems. This was necessary to
meet the increased orders received from the Indian Army and Navy. Block II, with advanced
supersonic dive manoeuvrability, has also been developed and was tested in September 2010 from
the Interim test range at Chandipur, Orissa. In December 2010, the BrahMos block-III+ version was
successfully test-fired from the integrated test range at Chandipur, off the Orissa Coast, India.
Brahmos 2, a hypersonic cruise missile with a speed of Mach 7, is under development. Its range is
expected to be 290 meters; keeping in mind that Missile Technology Control Regime prohibits
Russia from helping us in developing missiles with ranges above 300 kms.
BrahMos Aerospace has developed a universal vertical launcher module (UVLM) for the shipbased BrahMos N1 missile. The UVLM can launch up to eight missiles to destroy a group of
warships featuring modern anti-missile defence systems. An aircraft-launched variant (BrahMos A)
is currently being configured for the Sukhoi SU-30MKI aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF). It
features a smaller booster and additional tail fins for greater stability during launch.

NDT
Non-destructive testing (NDT) is a wide group of analysis techniques used in science and industry
to evaluate the properties of a material, component or system without causing damage. Because
NDT does not permanently alter the article being inspected, it is a highly valuable technique that
can save both money and time in product evaluation, troubleshooting, and research. Common NDT
methods include ultrasonic, magnetic-particle, liquid penetrant, radiographic, remote visual
inspection (RVI), eddy-current testing, and low coherence interferometry. NDT is commonly used
in forensic engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, systems
engineering, aeronautical engineering, medicine, and art.
BraHMos
Weld verification by X ray Radiography
After welding, visual inspection can detect a variety of surface flaws, including cracks, porosity and
unfilled craters, regardless of subsequent inspection procedures. Dimensional variances, warpage
and appearance flaws, as well as weld size characteristics, can be evaluated.
Moreover for precise flaw detection, Radiography (X-ray) is one of the most important, versatile
and widely accepted of all the non-destructive examination methods - Fig. 1. X-ray is used to
determine internal soundness of the welds.

Fig 1. Radiography
Radiography is based on the ability of X-rays and gamma rays to pass through metal and other
materials opaque to ordinary light, and produce photographic records of the transmitted radiant
energy. All materials will absorb known amounts of this radiant energy and, therefore, X-rays and
gamma rays can be used to show discontinuities and inclusions within the opaque material. The
permanent film record of the internal conditions will show the basic information by which weld
soundness and be determined.

6
When X-rays or gamma rays are directed at a section of weldment , not all of the radiation
passes are through the metal. Different materials, depending on their density, thickness and atomic
number, will absorb different wavelengths of radiant energy. The degree to which the different
materials absorb these rays determines the intensity of the rays penetrating through the material.
When variations of these rays are recorded, a means of seeing inside the material is available. The
image on a developed photo-sensitized film is known as a radiograph. Thicker areas of the
specimen or higher density material (tungsten inclusion), will absorb more radiation and their
corresponding areas on the radiograph will be lighter
Radiographic images are not always easy to interpret. Film handling marks and streaks, fog and
spots caused by developing errors may make it difficult to identify defects. Such film artifacts may
mask weld discontinuities. Surface defects will show up on the film and must be recognized.
Because the angle of exposure will also influence the radiograph, it is difficult or impossible to
analyze fillet welds by this method. Because a radiograph compresses all the defects that occur
throughout the thickness of the weld into one plane, it tends to give an exaggerated impression of
scattered type defects such as porosity or inclusions.
Inspection is done using X-rays and gamma rays as a penetrating medium, and densitized film as a
recording medium, to obtain a photographic record of internal quality of weld of the separate parts
of the pressure vessels. Generally, defects in welds consist either of a void in the weld metal itself
or an inclusion (tungsten in the weld strip shown to us) that differs in density from the
surrounding weld metal.
Radiographic equipment produces radiation that can be harmful to body tissue in excessive
amounts, safety precautions like proper uniform and isolation of the room with lead accessories is a
must. All instructions are followed carefully to achieve satisfactory results. Only personnel who are
trained in radiation safety and qualified as industrial radiographers are be permitted to do
radiographic testing.

PRECISION AND GENERAL MACHINING

Precision machining is a process where material is removed from a component to a very high
tolerance. Precision Instrument Machine Shop is a full-service machine shop specializing in the
custom design and fabrication of mechanical equipment. The temperature of the room is kept at 20
degree celsius so that variation related to temperature does not affect the finish. Precision machines
use a cutter and can be solid cutters such as tungsten carbide, cobalt or HSS. Also Watercutters
were used which are very accurate and use extremely high pressure water.
There are precision type lathes, drilling and boring machines, grinders, gear cutters, and milling
machines. Precision machine tools are classified as machine tools of increased precision ( class P),
high precision ( class H), superhigh precision(class A), and highest precision ( class S). Precision
machine tools make it possible to produce articles of grade of fit 11, with geometrically regular
surfaces, precisely aligned axes, and low surface roughness.
In the Precision machining room, there are around 26 CNC machines which allows to machine
extremely small and accurate features at a sub-millimeter scale. 3 axis as well as 5 axis machines
are available. Drill bits with size as low as 2 mm are used to machine the process. There are
continuous path controllers as well as point to point path controllers helping in making contours of
any shape at any angle. The machining centres, equipped with automatic tool changers, are capable
of changing 90 or more tools. The usual process flow is:

Develop or obtain the 3D geometric model of the part, using CAD.

Decide which machining operations and cutter-path directions are required
(computer assisted).
Choose the tooling required (computer assisted).
Run CAM software to generate the CNC part program.
Verify and edit program.
Download the part program to the appropriate machine.
Verify the program on the actual machine and edit if necessary .Run the program
and produce the part.

The lab also has Electron Discharge machine where an electrical spark is created between an
electrode and a workpiece. The spark is visible evidence of the flow of electricity. Intense heat is
produced due to this electric spark producing with temperatures reaching from 8000 to 12000
degree Celsius, melting almost anything. The spark is very carefully controlled and localized so that
it only affects the surface of the material. The EDM process usually does not affect the heat treat
below the surface. The spark always takes place in the dielectric of deionized water. The
conductivity of the water is carefully controlled making an excellent environment for the EDM
process. The water acts as a coolant and flushes away the eroded metal particles.
Also water Jet machining, a non-traditional process, where a jet of water at high velocity and
pressure, may be mixed with an abrasive substance like garnet or aluminium oxide, is used to make
intricate shapes The process is essentially the same as water erosion found in nature but accelerated
and concentrated by orders of magnitude. The most important benefit of the waterjet cutter is its

8
ability to cut material without interfering with the material's inherent structure as there is no "heat
affected zone" or HAZ. This allows metals to be cut without harming or changing their intrinsic
properties.
Machine shop work is generally understood to include all cold-metal work by which an operator,
using either power driven equipment or hand tools, removes a portion of the metal and shapes it to
some specified form or size. This is the place from where the raw material starts its journey to
become the final product. In launch vehicles used by ISRO, Pressurized tanks are used to store air
at high pressures so as to maintain the flow rate of the liquid propellants. These tanks, alloy of
titanium and vanadium, are manufactured by Brahmos. Initially, two metal plates are made into
semi-circular shapes by mandreal and then electron beam welding is done. In an electron beam
welder electrons are "boiled off" as current passes through a filament which is in a vacuum
enclosure. An electrostatic field, generated by a negatively charged filament and bias cup and a
positively charged anode, accelerates the electrons to about 50% to 80% of the speed of light and
shapes them into a beam. Due to the physical nature of the electrons - charged particles with an
extremely low mass - their direction of travel can easily be influenced by electromagnetic fields.
Electron beam welders use this characteristic to electromagnetically focus and very precisely
deflect the beam at speeds up to 10 kHz. When fast moving electrons hit a metal surface they are
decelerated which transforms the kinetic energy of each individual electron in the beam into
thermal energy in the component. When electrons in a focused beam hit a metal surface, the high
energy density instantly vaporizes the material, generating a so-called key hole. These pressure
vessels are then tested in an underground room for a pressure 1.67 times the approximate pressure.

QUALITY CONTROL
Quality control (QC) is a procedure or set of procedures intended to ensure that a manufactured
product or performed service adheres to a defined set of quality criteria or meets the requirements
of the client or customer. Quality Assurance (QA)is defined as a procedure or set of procedures
intended to ensure that a product or service under development (before work is complete, as
opposed to afterwards) meets specified requirements.
QC control and BrahMos:
Job Record: Keeps track of the work from its early stage to the following stages including
dimensions and tolerances with geometrical changes and processes involved. Very minute details
like orientation of the material grains in case of supporting structure components are also included
in the job record sheet. After every process the engineer responsible signs at their respective places.
Time taken by each process and consecutive measurements are also mentioned very systematically
in the job record.
Clean room: A clean room is an environment, typically used in manufacturing or scientific
research, with a low level of environmental pollutants such as dust, airbornemicrobes, aerosol particles, and chemical vapours. More accurately, a cleanroom has
a controlled level of contamination that is specified by the number of particles per cubic meter at a
specified particle size. To give perspective, the ambient air outside in a typical urban environment
contains 35,000,000 particles per cubic meter in the size range 0.5 m and larger in diameter.
Following are the standards for cleanrooms:
Table 1. ISO standards of clean room
Maximum concentration limits(paricles/m3)
ISO
equivalent
0.1 m 0.2 m 0.3 m 0.5 m 5 m
10
2
ISO 1
100
24
10
4
ISO 2
1000
237
102
35
ISO 3
10000
2370
1020
352
ISO 4
100000 23700 10200
3520
29
ISO 5
1000000 237000 102000 35200
293
ISO 6
352000 2930
ISO 7
3520000 29300
ISO 8
The clean room visited had 1lakh particles per m3.
Digital 2D height gauge: Used to measure linear lengths and PCDs with significant accuracy and
precision. It has several probes for measurement of different works. Calibration required.

10

CMM:
A coordinate measuring machine (CMM) is used for measuring the physical geometrical
characteristics of an object. This machine can be manually controlled by an operator or be computer
controlled. Measurements are defined by a probe attached to the third moving axis of this machine.
Probes can be mechanical, optical, laser, or white light. A machine which takes readings in six
degrees of freedom and displays these readings in mathematical form is known as a CMM. Its
advantages include flexibility of measuring dimensions, reduced setup time, improved accuracy,
reduced operator dependency and productive.
A magnificent bridge type CMM was shining in the QC section with air bearings and a set of
probes of all sizes with ruby probes and inductive probes.

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SURFACE TREATEMENT
The processes of surface treatments tailor the surfaces of engineering materials to

control friction and wear,

improve corrosion resistance,
change physical property, e.g., conductivity, resistivity, and reflection,
alter dimension,
vary appearance, e.g., color and roughness,

Ultimately, the functions and/or service lives of the materials can be improved.
Anodising: Anodising is the creation of an oxide layer on the surface of aluminium by electrochemical means. This oxide layer protects the underlying metal and prevents further corrosion from
taking place. An additional benefit of this process is that the oxide layer that is created will accept
certain dyes, thus allowing aluminium items to be finished in a wide range of colours.

Fig 2 .A schematic of anodising

Dyeing: Typically the dyes used are organic and can be sensitive to acid from the anodizing process
or contaminants in the rinse water. Therefore, post-anodizing rinsing is critical before parts go into
the dye tanks to avoid contamination of the dye tanks. The pre-dye rinse needs to be a high purity
water rinse such as deionized water and room temperature or cooler water. The use of a heated predye rinse would begin to seal the pores in the anodized surface and could reduce the dye pickup into
the pores. Depending on the dye, air agitation is either required or forbidden. The dye manufacturer
should be able to provide the best practices for their dyes. The dyeing tanks are typically heated per
the dye manufacturers instructions. The warm dye is drawn into the pores of the anodized layer

12
due to capillary action.
Sealing- The sealing operation is the final stage of the anodizing process. Immersion of an anodized
part into hot (boiling point) water causes the pores to seal over due to the slight solubility of the
aluminium oxide of the anodized surface. This provides stain and corrosion protection for a clear
anodized surface and prevents dye migration or degradation in a dyed surface. The hot water used
in sealing also needs to be high purity such as deionized water. Sealing additives are also
sometimes used such as nickel acetate with boric acid. The use of additives requires additional
wastewater treatment.
Some of the techniques performed at BrahMos are discussed below:
Sulphuric Acid Anodising:
Often known as natural, clear or silver anodising, this is the commonest type of anodising, and the
description covers a wide range of processes at different levels. The process differs from hard
anodising in that the electrolyte temperature is higher and the current density employed is lower.
The types of sulphuric acid are sub-divided into classes mainly determined by the field of
application. All anodising processes are sealed unless the film is used as a primer for paint or
adhesives.
Chromic Acid Anodising:
Compared with sulphuric acid anodising, it gives relatively soft, thin coatings, normally of two to
five microns thickness. These are used mainly for electrical insulation and general protection
against corrosion under mild conditions. Unsealed coatings are used as a 'key' for paints and
adhesives. It is light grey in colour, with a very silky texture.
Chromic acid anodising is particularly useful when:

It is necessary to minimise the loss of fatigue strength of workpiece, as compared

with sulphuric acid-type processes.
The item to be anodised contains crevices or small blind holes from which it may be
difficult to remove electrolyte.
The coating is on metal less than 250 microns thick, the process and resultant coating have
less adverse effect upon the properties of the underlying metal.
Components containing crevices or small blind holes.
Pre-treatment for painting, especially in aerospace applications.
Flaw detection - technique for identifying cracks, folds, inter-crystalline corrosion,
machining damage, incipient melting of grain boundaries, cold shuts, etc.

In the surface treatment in BrahMos, the layer of chromic gas was less than 10 micron thick as
compared to Sulphuric gas which was nearly 20 micron thick. The temperature of working for

13
chromic anodising was 400C and 150C for sulphuric anodising. The systematic steps for the
anodising include Vapour Degreaser Alkaline SoakCaustic EtchingChromic Acid
AnodisingHard Chromium PlatingDe-smutting (with citric acid) Dyeing
The dying was done using organic agents by impregnation process.
Chemical Milling:
The chemical milling process utilizes chemicals rather than cutting tools to etch shapes in metal.
Depending on the design of the part and desired volume of parts necessary, chemical milling can be
an economical machining option, and it is regularly employed for a wide number of applications.
Tooling for chemical milling is relatively simple, as it is generated using CAD software, with little
to no need for replacement parts. Additionally, the process does not alter the structure of the
remaining metal, which occurs in a variety of other physical machining processes. However, the
process is only suitable for metals of relatively limited thicknesses, except in situations where only
etching is required. At BrahMos chemical milling was used to contour a complex skin panel
section. Several layers of material were removed to make slots and geometries.
The process of chemical milling begins with a CAD file, which is sent to or produced by
the fabrication service (according to customer specifications). Once received, the fabricator creates
a graphic representation of the file, which will map the pattern on the top and bottom surface of the
metal to be milled, and selects the type of metal to undergo the process. Before any other steps can
be performed, the metal must be thoroughly prepared and cleaned for the application of photo-resist
material. After the metal is cleaned, the photo-resist material is applied to both sides, then
developed using UV light and chemicals. The remaining photo-resist material maps the areas that
will be removed by the application of acid, which is then sprayed on the coated part. After the acid
has been given sufficient time to work, the component is removed from the chemical milling area
and the layer of photo-resist material is removed.

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APPENDIX
Table 2. List of students in the visit
SR. NO.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

NAME OF THE STUDENT

AKHIL JAISWAL
AMAL JYOTHIS
AMAN GUPTA
AMIT KAMBOJ
DIVESH SONI
GAURAV VAIBHAV
J. YUDHISHTR
MANIMARAN SAMAR
MANISH KUMAR MISHRA
MARIYA RATLAMI
MAYANK KUMAR
MOFEEZ ALAM
MOHD. AHMAD
RAHUL TANWAR
RAJEEV VARMA
RAMAN CHAWLA
SREEAJ VARMA
SWAPNIL KUMAR
TANMAY SINGHAL

Table 3. List of Contacts in BATL

SR no
1

CONTACT PERSON
Shri. Rajeev Madhavan
Manager
BATL

Shri. Sunil Kumar

Deputy GR
BATL

Table. 4 List of faculty members for visit

SR no
1
2
3
4
5

Faculty name
Dr. Praveen Krishna
Dr. Pradeep Kumar P
Dr. Deepu M.
Dr. Satheesh K
Dr. B.R. Vinoth