CAREER EPISODE 3

Company : Sigma Heavy Engineering Limited

My Role : Industrial Training
Duration : 1 June 2004 30 June 2004
Established in August 1978 Sigma Heavy Engineering Limited is now proud
to be synonymous with Metal Engineering in India. Their expertise is solely based on
their wide experience and varied interaction with metal. They aim at not just metal
craft constantly redefining it in terms of - process, reliability and quality. Sigma
Heavy Engineering is an ISO 9001 certified Private Limited Company engaged in
Heavy Fabrication and Machining of Metal Engineering Jobs.
During my training I came to know about the main manufacturing processes. The
various processes and machinery are as follows:

1.1 Preparation of individual parts before assembly

a) The metal is first marked and cut by the following machines:- Gullotine Shearing machine for cutting and trimming steel sheets and
plates up to 25mm thick with straight contours.
- Stationary and portable Oxy-acetylene cutting machines for cutting
machines for cutting parts out of steel plates.
- An unique Flame cutting machine is used for cutting steel plates by CNC
programming.
- CNC Plasma cutting M/c for cutting S.S & higher alloys.
- Combination punch, shear and bar cutters, circular saws and bar shears are
used for cutting angles, shapes, flats and rods.
b) Straightening Rollers are used for straightening plates and large sized blanks
and a 160

ton friction press for straightening small sized blanks. A roll

bending machine is used for straightening and bending rolled

angles.

beams and

c) A 800 ton hydraulic bending and 400 ton press and a 250 ton friction press
are

used for cold and hot bending from rolled sheets and shapes. Parts to

bend are

pre heated

in a 700 KW electric furnace, when ever needed.

d) Finished parts are inspected at the working place.

1.2 Assembly and Welding

a) Components of units are assembled and tack welded for subsequent welding
as per drawing and instructions on process cards.
b) Manual arc welding arc welding is employed in restricted and inaccessible
places or where semi-automatic or automatic welding is not possible or has
not been established.
c) Semi-Automatic submerged arc welding, GTAW and Argon Carbon-di-Oxide
shielded arc welding are also used for increased productivity and better
quality.
All assembly work is carried out on bed plates. Small size structures are welded
with the help of manipulators.
Welding of high pressure cylinders of steam turbines is carried out after preliminary
heating up to 250 C.
Heat treatment is carried out in electric furnaces of bogie hearth, bell and pit types
after welding is completed.
In multi layer welding, the roots of seams are gouged and then cleaned by
mechanical means.
All assembly and welding sections have connections for compressed air, oxygen &
acetylene as well Argon carbon-di-oxide mixture and water for semi automatic
welding.
Weld quality inspection is adopted in accordance with the relevant specifications.
Inspection of weld quality and flaw detection is carried out by means of X-ray
machines, gammagraphy machines of cobalt and iridium isotopes and ultrasonic
flaw detectors.

Pressure vessels that is boilers, heaters, condensers and coolers undergo hydraulic
tests on special test beds meant for hydraulic testing. Kerosine leakage test is also
done in case of thin walled vessels.

1.3 Process being followed in pipe section

a) Pipes with diameter of 10-60 mm and 38-108 mm are cut on pipe cutting
machines and oxy-aceytlene cutters.
b) Cold bending of pipes is carried out on a pipe bending machine. Bending
of carbon and alloy steel pipes of 114 mm dia and above is performed by
heating them in electric furnaces and then by hot bending.
c) Facing of pipes and beveling for welding is carried out on a horizontal
boring machine with portable type pipe chamfering machine.
d) For assembly and welding of pipes bed plates and manipulators are used.
e) Heat treatment of pipes is done in electric furnace mentioned earlier.
f) Surface cleaning is done manually or by shot blasting.
Pipe assemblies are dimensionally checked and quality of welds is tested by X-ray
and Gammagraphy.

1.4 Process being followed in machining section

a) Casting, forging, rolled section and welded structures are delivered to
sections where assembly and welding are done in accordance with
specifications set forth in drawings.
b) Pre weld machining for large sized parts for steam turbines and hydro
turbines are carried out in block-3.
c) Provision is made for the application of highly productive cemented
carbide tiped cutting tools, high speed cutting with maximum utilization
with machine tool capacity and rapid section locating and clamping
fixture.

1.5 Process being followed in painting section

a) Painting materials used and painting processes adopted, conform to the

standards for tropical climates.
b) Owing to different operating conditions and decoration requirements of
units and parts of turbines and electrical machines, different processes for
painting are adopted.
c) Some components and units undergo only prime coating in the steel
structure section, with subsequent painting in the painting section of the
machine and assembly section.

1.6 Hydraulic Press

A hydraulic press is a hydraulic mechanism for applying a large lifting or
compressive force. It is the hydraulic equivalent of a mechanical lever, and is also
known as a Bramah press after the inventor, Joseph Bramah. Hydraulic presses are
the most commonly-used and efficient form of modern press.
The hydraulic press depends on Pascal's principle: the pressure throughout closed
system is constant. At one end of the system is a piston with a small cross-sectional
area driven by a lever to increase the force. Small-diameter tubing leads to the
other end of the system. A fluid, such as oil, is displaced when either piston is
pushed inward. The small piston, for a given distance of movement, displaces a
smaller amount of volume than the large piston, which is proportional to the ratio of
areas of the heads of the pistons. Therefore, the small piston must be moved a large
distance to get the large piston to move significantly. The distance the large piston
will move is the distance that the small piston is moved divided by the ratio of the
areas of the heads of the pistons.

1.7 Oxy-Fuel Welding And Cutting

Oxy-fuel welding (commonly called oxyacetylene welding or oxy welding or in the
U.S. gas welding) and Oxy-fuel cutting are processes that use fuel gases and oxygen
to either weld or cut metals.

There are a few differences between the two. In Oxy-fuel welding, a welding torch is
used to weld metals. In Oxy-fuel cutting, a cutting torch is used to heat up ferrous
metal to kindling temperature (about 980C). A stream of pure oxygen is trained on
the hot metal which chemically combines with the iron which then flows out of the
cut, or kerf, as an iron-oxide slag
Torches that do not mix pure oxygen with the fuel inside the torch, but burn it with
atmospheric air, are not oxy-fuel torches and can be identified by their single tank.
(Oxy-fuel welding/cutting needs two tanks, fuel and oxygen.) Most metals cannot be
melted with such single-tank torches, so they can only be used for soldering and
brazing, not welding.

1.8 Planers
A planer is a type of metalworking machine tool that is analogous to a shaper, but
larger, and with the entire workpiece moving beneath the cutter, instead of the
cutter moving above a stationary workpiece. The work table is moved back and
forth on the bed beneath the cutting head either by mechanical means, such as a
rack and pinion gear, or by a hydraulic cylinder.
Planers and shapers were used generally for two types of work: generating accurate
flat surfaces and cutting slots (such as keyways). Planers and shapers are now
obsolescent, because milling machines have eclipsed them as the machine tools of
choice for doing such work.

1.9 Plasma Cutting

Plasma cutting is a process that is used to cut steel and other metals (or
sometimes other materials) using a plasma torch. In this process, an inert gas (in
some units, compressed air) is blown at high speed out of a nozzle; at the same

time an electrical arc is formed through that gas from the nozzle to the surface
being cut, turning some of that gas to plasma. The plasma is sufficiently hot to melt
the metal being cut and moves sufficiently fast to blow molten metal away from the
cut.
Cutting Methods: Plasma cutters have also been used in CNC machinery.
Manufacturers build CNC cutting tables, some with the cutter built in to the table.
The idea behind CNC tables is to allow a computer to control the torch head making
clean sharp cuts. Modern CNC plasma equipment is capable of multi-axis cutting of
thick material, allowing opportunities for complex welding seams on CNC welding
equipment that is not possible otherwise.

1.10 Centre Lathe with Three and Four Jaws

A metal lathe is generic description for a rigid machine tool designed to remove
material from a workpiece, through the action of a cutting tool. They were originally
designed to machine metals; however, with the advent of plastics and other
materials, and with their inherent versatility, they are used in a wide range of
applications, and a broad range of materials.
A center lathe is a dual head machine where the work remains fixed and the heads
move towards the workpiece and machine a center drill hole into each end. The
resulting workpiece may then be used "between centers" in another operation. The
usage of the term metal lathe may also be considered somewhat outdated these
days, plastics and other composite materials are in wide use and with appropriate
modifications, the same principles and techniques may be applied to their
machining as that used for metal.
A center lathe or engine lathe may be considered the basis for the metal lathe and
is the type most often used by the general machinist or hobbyist.The center lathe
may be considered a useful starting point. The engine lathe is the name applied to a
traditional 20th century lathe. It is assumed that the 'engine' was added to the
description to separate them from the 'foot lathes' (lathes turned by pedals) or
other hand rotated pieces of machinery. Early engine lathes were generally 'cone

heads', in that the spindle usually had attached to it a multi-step pulley designed to
accept a flat belt. Different spindle speeds could be obtained by moving the flat belt
to different steps on the cone pully. It was assumed that a cone head lathe would be
powered by a Line shaft which was the industrial standard of the time

1.11 Non Destructive Testing

Nondestructive testing (NDT) has been defined as comprising those test methods
used to examine an object, material or system without impairing its future
usefulness. The term is generally applied to non medical investigations of material
integrity.
The main NDT processes at the fabrication block are as follows:

1.11.1 Visual Inspection

It is the simplest ,cheapest and most widely used method amongst all the NDTs.A
simple visual test reveal gross surface defects easily and quickly . However for
detection of final defects, device/equipments having high degree of precision and
illumination are required.

1.11.2 Radiography
In this test the X-rays and gamma rays are used to detect deep seated internal
defects. The short wavelengths of X-ray permitted to penetrate through the opaque
material. Gamma rays are the electro-magnetic radiations that are emitted from an
unstable nucleus.

1.11.3 Penetrant Testing

Penetrant solution is applied to the surface of a precleaned component. The liquid is

pulled into surface-breaking defects by capillary action. A developer is applied to
pull the trapped penetrant back to the surface where it is spread out and forms an
indication. The indication is much easier to see than the actual defect