Tag: testing

DST Secretary Prof. Abhay Karandikar inaugurates SATHI facility at IIT Kharagpur

Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology (DST) visited Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institute (SATHI) facility, a flagship programme of DST, GOI, hosted at IIT Kharagpur and inaugurated the highly sophisticated R&D infrastructure: Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) and High-Resolution Aberration Corrected Transmission Electron Micron (HRTEM), one of its kind, on 12th April, 2024 in the presence of Prof. V K Tewari, Director; Prof. Amit Patra, Deputy Director; Prof. Rintu Banerjee, Dean, R&D; Prof. Rabibrata Mukherjee, Chairman, SATHI of IIT Kharagpur along with the students, faculty and staff members of the institute and other officials of DST.

During his opening remarks, Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, DST emphasized about the strategy entails of SATHI establishment, which sustains with shared equipment within a collaborative framework and networking with near-by MSMEs, start-ups, industries & academic organizations, guided by a self-sustaining roadmap. Spearheading the establishment of the SATHI facility, emphasizing its pivotal role in propelling the development of new materials, innovative products, and cutting-edge technologies in advanced materials characterization. By adopting this approach, DST strives to foster the convergence of diverse expertise, regional vigor, and institutional eminence to lead the vibrant scientific eco-system.

“It is a delight to visit the first and the largest IIT of the country which shares a profound historical significance and laid the foundation for the technical studies in India. IIT Kharagpur has always stood at the helm of transforming technologies and sustainable reforms of technical prowess. This initiative extends a warm invitation for active engagement to various entities within the region, including Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), industries, and start-ups and scientist to hand hold to gain better societal outreach. With such compelling proposition, the SATHI program has the potential to fortify the R&D infrastructure landscape of the nation,” quoted Prof. Karandikar.

Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur elaborated the various initiatives the institute is taking in making its Central Research Facility available to masses. He said that one of the instruments HRTEM, is only of its kind in the country and 14th in the world and added, “SATHI is a flagship programme of DST, GOI to promote the culture of deep technology based cutting-edge research not only within academia but also involving industry particularly MSME & start-ups. As a part of the SATHI Facility at IIT KGP, two world class instruments: High Resolution Aberration Corrected Transmission Electron Microscope (HRTEM) & a Time of Flight – Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (ToF_SIMS) was inaugurated today. I am grateful to Prof. Karandikar that he came to IIT Kharagpur and inspired us with his presence.”

Prof. Rintu Banerjee, Dean (R&D) highlighted the need for government funded projects for industry interactions. Prof. Amit Patra, Deputy Director expressed that SATHI like facility will ignite the spark in the young minds.

Prof. Rabibrata Mukherjee, Chairman, SATHI stated, “The HRTEM allows clear direct visualization of atom & molecules and will be extremely useful for many factories on advanced material based industries. On the other hand, the ToF_SIMs allows determination of self composition and defects and is vital for the semi-conductor industry.”

Faculties and students of the institute explored the immense possibilities of SATHI facility for extensive usage. Prof. Karandikar announced that three new SATHI centres are coming up in the country. He stated that efforts are being made to simplify the fund utilization and other administrative procedures to support ease of doing scientific & technological research. He also delivered an institute lecture on “Connecting the Unconnected in 5G and a Vision for 6G Architecture, a session on future communication system of 6G and beyond in the Netaji Auditorium of the institute.

About SATHI, IIT Kharagpur:

  • Sophisticated Analytical and Technical Help Institute (SATHI) center at IIT Kharagpur would be offering services such as Characterization, Testing, Fabrication, Scientific analysis/interpretation, generation of data & knowledge dissemination and so on to various external users including start-ups, MSMEs, large scale industry and academia.
  • The National Centre will give access to unique instruments and facilities to various types of users, which are not readily accessible or available in the country, to inculcate the culture of high-end science-based research, product development and innovation
  • The key theme of the SATHI center at IIT Kharagpur, which will be managed by SATHI Foundation at IIT Kharagpur (a section 8 company) is Advanced Materials
  • Currently, SATHI facility at IIT Kharagpur is hosting state of the art High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope (HRTEM) and Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (ToF-SIMS) instruments. Very soon, a high temperature Universal Testing machine will also be installed.

Inputs by: Prof. Rabibrata Mukherjee,Chaiman, SATHI & Dr. Avinash Joshi, Chief Operating Officer, SATHI Foundation
Email: rabibrata@che.iitkgp.ac.in; coosathi@iitkgp.ac.in

By: Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

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This School at IIT Kharagpur is Upgrading Quality and Reliability for Indian Industries

“Quality combines people power and process power .  .  . The costs of poor quality are tangible; they will cost you customers and money, and ultimately affect the success of your business” ~ Subir Chowdhury, Quality Guru, Distinguished Alumnus Awardee

India has taken a giant step towards upgrading its manufacturing operations to Industry 4.0 and transforming into an industrial hub. As industry-oriented research, product development and IP transfer are being intensified across a wide range of advanced manufacturing, an important aspect for the industry to address is now the quality of people and process which thereby would lead to optimal product quality. Achieving this goal of India-specific quality maintenance in the industrial sector would require a whole new vertical of professionals who would be excelling in Quality and Reliability of the 3Ps – people, product and process.

IIT Kharagpur, which has pioneered in several academic disciplines in India, has taken up the responsibility to train industry professionals and academicians through courses and training modules to develop the new age quality professionals at the Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability.

Talking about the opportunities unlocked by the School, Head, Prof. Sanjay Kumar Chaturvedi said, “over the years we have experienced a great scope as well as demand for engineers from diverse backgrounds who are well-trained in quality and reliability. Our records give evidence with our graduates placed from the nuclear energy sector to defense research to automobile, steel, power, other manufacturing sectors and even IT.”

In India, while Quality courses are offered by most of the universities as part of the industrial engineering program at the undergraduate level, specializations in quality are mainly offered by a few IITs only at the postgraduate level. However, IIT Kharagpur is the only institution in India to offer a comprehensive M.Tech. program in Quality and Reliability Engineering. Besides, the School offers MS and PhD programs in various domains of quality and reliability such as network, human, software, Maintenance Engineering, Probabilistic Risk and Safety etc.

“In addition to postgraduate degree programs in Quality and Reliability Engineering we offer core courses, electives and microspecializations to students at all levels of study. Our quality and reliability courses are offered separately without any amalgamation,” added Prof. Chaturvedi.

Further, the School has been organizing short-term courses for working professionals both from academic and industry backgrounds. Several of the industrial training programs were in-situ for industries, wherein solving a real problem from the industry by an attendee was a part of the course. In the recent past, the School has worked with top industry brands such as Siemens, Whirlpool, TVS, John Deere, Tata Steel, DRDO etc. in areas encompassing system reliability, industrial safety, risk assessment, life testing, reliability centered maintenance, product reliability assessment and assurance and many more.

Opining his vision for the School, patron Subir Chowdhury said, “The economic impact of poor quality on a nation is huge. It affects the quality of life for its citizens. The quality and reliability processes taught and practiced in India need to be upgraded to a much higher level. Since India has ambitious plans for self-sustainability in the manufacturing sector, it is necessary that the products developed and manufactured meet national and international standards in terms of quality and reliability and safety. Also in order to meet the production targets, manufacturing processes needs to be made reliable. The School can really contribute in this journey in terms of supplying training, consultancy and research.”

Along with his organization ASI Consulting Group, USA, Subir is actively engaged in the development of academic materials, laboratories and faculty for the School. Recently in an e-workshop organized by the School in association with ASI Consulting Group international quality experts Shin Taguchi (CTO, ASI), and Alan Wu (VP, ASI) shared insights on Robust Engineering and Optimization. 

Following Subir’s goal to take the concept of quality to the common citizens of India and making it their personal need and responsibility, the faculty members at Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability are in the process of organizing web-based awareness programs.

The School further aims to develop newer modules in Industry 4.0 and AIML.

Pondering on it Prof. Chaturvedi remarked, “With the aim of researching this impact as well as the utilized methods a comprehensive analysis of the effect of Industry 4.0 on quality control is imperative. The integration of wireless sensor networks and IIoT is a substantial challenge and it should be implemented to guide engineers to make the correct decisions. As a consequence, by utilizing machine learning and smart sensors, irregularities could be automatically accommodated by the process in order to guarantee the best possible quality of the final products. It is particularly important to integrate and apply the tools of Industry 4.0 to quality control in order to decidedly increase the precision of the measurement.”

More about Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability: http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/department/RE

The article has been written in collaboration with various authors from the Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability

IIT KGP Researchers Design Award-winning for Cardiovascular Device Testing Technology

Researchers from IIT Kharagpur have designed an automated smart device for online testing of cardiac medical devices and prosthetics. The device is capable of creating life-like simulations in cardiac failure cases due to various diseases and tests the performance of implantable devices and prosthetics such as Ventricular assist devices.

The World Health Organization reported 17.9 million deaths in 2016 from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) accounting for about 31% of global deaths. In India, over 28% of the deaths are due to CVD in 2016 according to a study published in 2018. According to the business intelligence company Fior Markets, the global cardiovascular devices market is expected to grow from USD 42.61 billion in 2019 to USD 71.05 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 6.6% during the forecast period 2020-2027. These devices would include surgical devices as well as diagnostic and monitoring devices covering a large range of CVDs – Cerebrovascular Heart Disease, Stroke, Sudden Cardiac Arrest and Coronary Heart Disease. With rapid development in medical devices, especially for the implants, rigorous testing and assessment are essential during the developmental stage. 

“The intriguing complexity of physiology and function of the heart makes it difficult to carry out an in-depth study of the live organ. For researchers, the study of a cadaver heart does not provide many clues regarding its functioning in live conditions. This limitation led us to design a novel heart analogue model, Cardiovascular Replicator (CVR), which can serve as a platform for studying the cardiovascular system,” said lead researcher Prof. Prasanta Kumar Das from the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. 

The Cardiovascular Replicator (CVR) developed by the team is an electromechanical system that can mimic the entire hemodynamics of the human heart along with its pulmonic and systemic circulations.

“The device enables us to simulate a long-range of heart diseases and conditions like aortic valve stenosis, ventricular septal defects, fetal circulation, cross circulation, single ventricle conditions and Fontan correction etc. along with hardware in the loop simulation. We can also run tests prior to animal trials,” said researcher Sumanta Laha.

The design is equipped with sensors and a widescreen display which facilitates online real-time data monitoring and logging. This system is made in a modular way to ease transportation and enable improvisation.  

Prof. Indranil Ghosh from the Cryogenic Engineering Centre pointed out the pedagogical advantage of the device for the medical community.

“Cardiovascular Replicator will not only be of great value for researchers working in medical technology innovation but also for medical students during their practical training due to the experiential learning from real-life simulations of the diseases,” he said.

The research has been awarded the prestigious SITARE – Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award 2020 for this work titled ‘Automated Cardiovascular Replicator for Online Assessment of Cardiac Assist Devices, Prosthetics and Beyond’.