L&T in Vadodara and ZwickRoell – a trusted partnership in advanced testing of composite materials
Vadodara Heavy Engineering Works in Ranoli belong to the L&T Heavy Engineering Business Group. It is a specialised facility for manufacturing equipment & systems addressing two major manufacturing value chains - exotic metals and advanced composites materials. This unit serves among others the Defense and Aerospace industries and has worked with the Government of India on many of its “technology development” projects. Their strength lies in a highly skilled workforce and adaptation of innovative methods and processes. The Advanced Composites Center is internationally accredited for Nadcap, AS9100 and the Testing Laboratory is accredited by NABL for ISO17025 for various American, Russian & German standards.
What challenges and testing requirements have been solved?
Materials testing is a crucial part of the quality control system and of upmost importance especially for Aerospace & Defense sector. The testing laboratory is well-equipped with a range of up-to-date testing machines including a 100kN materials testing machine (UTM) for composite testing from ZwickRoell. The modular testing system of ZwickRoell assures 9 types of tests according to 12 test standards. This 100kN UTM with body over wedge grips & most advanced automatic makroXtens II extensometer assures reliable test results for their production. The intelligent makroXtens II extensometer is already calibrated from a measurement travel of 20 mµ in class 0.5 & can be used up to specimen break. The extensometer fulfills the stringent test requirements of ISO 527 with maximum error of ±1 µm in the differential displacement measurement between two measurement points in the range of 20 µm to 200 µm, fully fulfilling the additional requirement stipulated by ISO 527-1 (2011). The existing makroXtens II extensometer can also be used for high temperature testing with full compliance to test requirements of ISO 527-1. This UTM has longer test height of 1755 mm that allows user to go for testing at high temperature in future.
What is your experience in working together with ZwickRoell?
“The UTM is feather in our cap of Advanced manufacturing facility. This gives assurance to customer about reliability of manufactured products at L&T. Technical support for selection of machine and during installation led to smooth capability enhancement of our testing lab”
quoted by management of L&T.
