Since the early dawn of civilization, the strong and light material has always fascinated mankind for typical applications. The idea of combining two or more different materials resulting in a new material with improved properties exists from ages. Composites bestowed with unique advantages like light-weight, high strength-to-weight ratio, drew attention from the developed world towards novel applications.

The usage of composites in all these years has been limited in India and multiple commercial applications and potential for export have been explored in a limited way. In view of the crucial need for developing indigenous capability in composite technology, the Advanced Composites Mission was launched by the Department of Science & Technology (Government of India) in 1993 with a clear mandate of developing novel composite products and promoting their applications.

The Advanced Composites Mission has initiated 26 projects focusing on the technological development of Indian Composite industry.The Mission has widely demonstrated the usage of synthetic & natural fibre composites in various sectors such as transportation, industrial, bio-medical, building & construction etc.

Products such as FRP gear-case for railway locomotives, FRP sleepers for railway girder bridges, energy efficient FRP axial flow fans, FRP pultruded profiles, double-wall FRP storage vessels, carbon fibre composite based external ring fixators, below-knee endoskeleton type composite artificial limb, jute-coir composites as wood substitute etc have been developed for large-scale commercialization – some of them are now being offered for technology transfer/product marketing/ manufacturing on joint-venture basis for the overseas market.

The Advanced Composites Mission has typically catalyzed technology incubation in many ways staring from product conceptualization, knowledge creation in terms of product design & material selection, nurturing the technology into prototype development and finally commercialization.

The Mission activities have created a significant and measurable impact towards composite technology development & its subsequent application. The experiences in technology incubation & development for various composite products, their properties and application potential are discussed in the paper.

Composites, the wonder material with lightweight, high strength-to-weight ratio and stiffness properties have come a long way in replacing the conventional materials like metals, woods etc. The composite technology of a matrix reinforced with man-made fibres such as glass, Kevlar, carbon etc. after meeting the challenges of aerospace sector have cascaded down for catering to industrial and domestic applications.

The composites offer some significant advantages to metals in many structural applications due to the flexibility of selecting various combinations of fiber reinforcement and resin matrix. It has been observed that a weight saving of over 27% is attainable in most of the structures.

Due to their lightweight coupled with high strength, composites can replace wooden & heavy metallic parts in transportation (automobiles & railways) thus directly contributing to energy savings. The usage of composites for bio-medical applications can be a boon to the patients for reducing the drudgery of carrying heavy weight.

Composites bestowed with unique advantages, as mentioned earlier, drew attention from the developed world towards novel applications. The consumption of composites increased manifold in the last two decades especially in industrial & consumer applications.

The Western Europe, USA & Japan enjoy major share of the world market of composites. While the usage of composites has been substantial in the advanced countries and newly developed economies, their application in India is yet to be fully exploited for large-scale end-use pattern. Purely for comparison, the per capita consumption of composites in USA & China today stand at 5.6 Kgs. & 1.5 Kgs. respectively vis-à-vis that of 35 gms. in India.

While a rich expertise exists in a few national centres of excellence especially for aerospace sector for limited consumption, the knowledge-flow to the industry has not come up to the desired level. The developmental efforts for finding newer composites for existing & novel applications assume an area of top priority.

Assessing the status of composite industry in India, it was felt that there was an ardent requirement of a serious effort to boost the usage of composites through indigenous design capability, product development & testing. Any major penetration seemed unlikely unless it was taken up as a mission mode project with commitment from the Government.

To promote the usage of composites as an advanced performance material, Technology Development & Commercialization Mission on Advanced Composites was launched by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India. Based on the earlier initiatives by Technology Information, Forecasting & Assessment Council (TIFAC) in promoting composite applications, the implementation of the Mission-mode programme was assigned to TIFAC.

The programme has been an attempt to enhance the utilisation & application of composites as an important performance material in various sectors on a technology incubation mode by improved laboratory-industry-user linkages towards development & commercialisation. Identifying this as a unique challenge towards developing marketable & sustainable products utilising the core competence of India, TIFAC directed concerted efforts in the planning & management of the Advanced Composites Mission programme.

Objectives

In order to reaching composites to key economic & industrial sectors, the Mission aims at developing certain critical strategic inputs in terms of raw materials, design capability, product application, skilled manpower and testing devices. Towards its objectives, the Advanced Composites Mission focuses on:

The projects launched by the Mission focused on the development of essential input materials & technologies for composites and to develop/enhance the capability to design, develop and produce select composite products. The Advanced Composites Mission has been an experiment to bring about a culture of technology development towards commercialization especially for the technology starved SMEs. The Mission has attempted to source the knowledge from various centres of excellence across the country and brought the industries closer for technology absorption, development & dissemination.

The Mission initiatives encompass a wide gamut of developmental projects ranging from hi-tech aircraft brake-discs to down-to-earth societal applications such as artificial limbs to alleviate human suffering. The Mission has been successful in launching 26 projects in active collaboration with the research institutes and composite industries in India.

Apart from enhancing design capabilities in composites technology & human resource development, the Mission has diversified in key economic & industrial sectors such as railways, automobiles, bio-medical & rehabilitation, industrial products, chemical processes, building & construction, telecom etc. The Mission has directed a whole lot of efforts on knowledge dissemination and creating a user awareness in terms of improved properties, reduced weight, easy maintainability, longer life, higher efficiency etc. for the composite products.

Technology incubation has been an international experience in developing and promoting the novel technology applications. The relevance of technology incubation specially assumes importance in the context of a developing economy and industry as typified by India.

From its inception, the Advanced Composites Mission had explored different ways so as to evolve the single most effective mechanism for technology development for faster & wider applications. At the initial stage, the approach had been to locate the incubation activities within the premises of a national level publicly funded R&D lab or an academic institution with the outside support of an industry partner.

The model involved carrying out all the developmental activities and creation of physical assets in the laboratory itself supported with major funding from the Mission. The strategy was based on the premise that in the event of successful development of technology, the industry would take it up further for commercialization.

Most of the targeted areas of development were of critical technology without a large usage base, mostly concerning aerospace applications of low-volume but high-value. The strategy lacked in the direct involvement of the users/stake holders (market perspective) in technology development. The industry partners being extraneous to the entire development exercise were not too keen on the outcome. The strategy is schematically illustrated by Fig.

In the later experiment, while the development & incubation activities still centred around the R&D labs, the industry partners were involved directly in die development, prototype fabrication and product testing. The technology incubation became a success with the product finding bulk application.

The case of developing FRP sleepers for railway girder bridges involving a defence R&D lab, a medium sized entrepreneur and most importantly, the user, Indian Railways, has been successful. The project was co-funded by Indian Railways and the Mission with the promise of large-scale replication.

After a whole gamut of simulated use tests by two national agencies and year-long field trials on actual condition, the FRP sleepers have now been inducted by the Indian Railways. With the knowledge replication, there are four FRP manufacturers in the country today capable of fabricating and supplying the sleepers catering to a large demand pattern. A schematic presentation of the second strategy is given in Fig.

The most successful strategy of technology incubation has been the latest one wherein the actions were shifted to the premise of SMEs. The SMEs were nurtured with design & technology support from the centres of excellence e.g. IITs, CSIR labs etc. The knowledge partners extended support in terms of design, material selection, process optimization, equipment specifications & procurement, prototype development and finally product testing towards user acceptance.

In all such cases, a tripartite arrangement was arrived at where the centre of excellence, entrepreneur and the Mission worked together. The Mission introduced the unique methodology of project review and monitoring with the involvement of experts mostly drawn from the user agencies.

\ The technology incubation attributes such as attractive scheme of financial assistance, technological risk sharing, an effective programme management and knowledge-based project monitoring by experts coupled with the market intervention by reaching to the user agencies all helped the Mission to record its achievements in a short span and arrive at a threshold. The Mission functioned more as a ‘facilitator’ than merely a funding agency. The schematic representation of the proven strategy is given in Fig.

Sectors Targeted Towards Technology Development

Under the aforesaid Mission on Advanced Composites, a number of projects on novel composite applications such as FRP gear-case for railway locomotives, high energy efficiency FRP axial flow fan, pultruded FRP profiles, jute-coir composite boards etc.were initiated in partnership with the industries across the country. There has been an intense interaction with major user agencies from important economic sectors towards product standardization, testing, approval & acceptance for wider induction.

The key industrial sectors covered under the Mission are mentioned below :

Composites for Railways

Composite for Automobiles

Composites for Bio-Medical Applications

Composites for Industrial Applications

Composites for Building & Construction

The Mission targeted the aspect of energy conservation & energy saving in the sectors like transportation (automobiles & railways), process equipment etc. Lightweight coupled with high strength composites can replace conventional components such as metals, wood etc. in transportation thus directly contributing to energy savings.

The Mission has launched a few projects based on natural fibre composites especially for partial replacement of high-cost glass fibres for low load bearing applications such as partitions, door, panels and other interiors. Commercial exploitation of jute composites for non-structural applications has provided an excellent application & market potential.

Natural fibre composites reinforced with quickly renewable natural fibres such as jute, coir, sisal etc. as wood substitute can help preventing depletion of precious forest resources. Simultaneously, such natural fibre composites can be excellent value-addition avenues for the farmers and converters for novel applications far from the traditional means of using the natural fibres. With increasing emphasis on fuel efficiency, jute composites enjoy wider applications in automobiles and railway coaches.

The Mission has made a visible impact on Indian Railways by launching nine projects having direct relevance to railways. A few products have gone in a big way towards commercialization. The product has catered to stringent technical and safety requirements. The painstaking and concerted efforts over a prolonged period have gone in the conceptualization, design & development and further improvement of these composite products for the railways.

Towards an industry oriented technology incubation process, the Mission attempted to source the knowledge from various centres of excellence across the country and catalyzed an active partnership with the industries for technology absorption, development & dissemination.

An industry partner was involved in the projects for bridging the gap between the product development and market penetration. The Mission thus enhanced the confidence levels in the industries as well as R&D agencies to promote commercialization of composite technologies.

The Advanced Composites Mission also set up two stand-alone technology incubation centres. The details of such technology incubation activities are given under ‘Composites Development Cemtre’.

Table 1.0: List of Projects launched by the Advanced Composites Mission

The material characterization, design methodology, product development, process parameters, quality control, testing & certification of composite products are of utmost importance for accepting the products by the end users. This can be met by in-house development of such facilities meeting Indian & international standards. The Mission has identified the prime need for creating such in-house testing capabilities for the industries.

Under the projects supported by the Advanced Composites Mission, the industries have set up automated in-house production, testing & quality control facilities for manufacturing composite products meeting the international standards & quality norms.

This has contributed significantly to the upgradation of composite technology in terms of basic design parameters, raw material selection, process of fabrication, testing, quality assurance and certification resulting in the development of novel composite products for a wide array of applications.

This aspect generated confidence among industry & the user. The products developed with upgraded technology are successful in replacing some of the imported ones with better efficiency & enhanced life. This has paved the way for good business potential in the domestic market as well as avenues abroad.

Milestone Achievements

Some of the products developed successfully under the Mission have already recorded significant milestone achievements and reached the threshold of commercialization. The salient Mission achievements include the following :

Under the project FRP gear-cases for diesel & electric locomotives have been successfully developed and field-tested extensively. Against a development order received from Indian Railways, 60 nos. FRP gear-cases, have been fitted in the diesel locomotives and these are now fully operational. Another development order has been received from OEM supplier for the induction of 108 nos. FRP gear-cases in diesel locos.

FRP gear-cases for electric locomotives (Hitachi model) has also been developed. 36 nos. FRP gear-case for electric locomotives have been supplied against an order from Railways. The Indian Railways plan to induct FRP gear-cases for locomotives in a big way for regular use.

With the use of FRP gear-cases (six nos. per locomotive), there has been a weight saving of 430 kgs. per loco. These gear-cases are expected to last for over 6 years in service as against merely 2 to 3 years of conventional steel gear-case. The cost benefit analysis has proved the superiority of FRP gear-case over MS ones on life-cycle basis.

Table 2.0 : Properties of FRP Gear-Case against the specified values

Extended life-cycle for the products along with a considerable weight savings, better maintainability makes it attractive against steel gear-cases.

The project aimed at developing boards with oriented jute face veneer and coir/rubber wood waste inside as wood substitute. The jute-coir composite boards, being positioned as plywood & MDF substitutes have been developed & tested successfully.

Two major categories of composite boards namely, coir-ply boards (jute + rubber wood + coir) as plywood substitute and natural fibre reinforced boards (jute + coir) as MDF substitute have been developed under the project with superior performance, properties and great price advantages. The detailed properties of jute-coir boards tested as per IS-12406 against the specified values of MDF boards are given in Table 3.0.

Table 3.0 : Properties of Jute-Coir Composite Boards

Detailed evaluation of the jute-coir board samples has been carried out by Indian Railways for their applications as berth backings & partitions in railway coaches; the results conform to the railways' requirements. Based on the initial success of using 500 nos. jute-coir boards as MDF substitute in the railway coaches, the Indian Railways decided to induct 4000 nos. boards.

The industry partner has been offering the technology know-how (hard board grade, MDF grade, plywood grade & doors) for transfer to other industries to enable replication of the benefits accrued. The panel & flush doors made of jute-coir composite boards have also been introduced. These are fast gaining the market acceptance by construction agencies and others.

The project aiming at improving fan design to provide optimum efficiency suitable for specific air-flow and system pressure applications was launched in 1998 with technology support from IIT-Bombay, Mumbai. Five types of fans for cooling towers, mine ventilation, textile humidification, radiator cooling for diesel locomotives & air heat-exchangers were developed & tested successfully; an efficiency differential of around 20-30% with commensurate energy saving was achieved over conventional fans with aluminium impellers.

The test results of FRP fans vis-a-vis metallic fans are listed in Table 4.0. These fans promise a pay-back period of 2-3 months at current energy rates. Based on extensive field trials of two radiator cooling FRP fans fitted in diesel locomotives, the Indian Railways have inducted 10 nos. fans for such application.

The energy efficient FRP axial flow fans have been inducted for cooling tower, mine ventilation and other applications by leading Indian industries. The axial flow fans enjoy good export potential especially in the neighbouring countries, as there are very few manufacturers of FRP fans, mostly located in Europe and USA.

Table 4.0 : Test Results of FRP Fans Vs. Conventional Metallic Fans

* Tested on the Test Rig as per ANSI/AMCA 210-85
+ Tested on Site

The project aimed at developing FRP profiles for industrial gratings, solid rods for electrical insulation, cable trays, ladders etc. These products have been developed successfully with excellent surface finish and flame retardancy as per international standards. The comparison chart of the properties of FRP pultruded sections and other structural materials are listed in table 5.0 & 6.0.

Table 5.0 : Mechanical Properties of Pultruded Profiles Vs. Other Structural Materials

Table 6.0 : Physical & Chemical Properties of Pultruded Profiles Vs. Other Structural Materials

* Excellent with special additives
(Source : Product Information Brochure; DK Fibre Forms, Pune, India)

Towards the market seeding for commercialisation of the pultruded product, the Company targeted three major segments viz. new projects, replacement market in industrial & non-industrial applications. Cable trays, gratings, channels & strips & other accessories are being supplied regularly to various industries in India.

The project dealt with a fairly advanced technology for developing lighter external fixators, made of polyethersulphone reinforced with carbon fibre as lightweight substitute to steel rings for repairing & realignment of bones.

These fixator rings offer certain advantages like high strength-to-weight ratio, transparency to X-ray etc. Baby rings, foot rings, Italian femoral arches, long & short connection plates, carbon fibre rods, limb re-constructive system etc. were developed successfully. Commercial production of external fixators has commenced & the products are being marketed in India & abroad. The project having met all its objectives has been declared successful.

Polymer composite sleepers were designed and developed to replace the existing wooden and steel channel sleepers on girder bridges. Full-length sleepers were successfully tested for Load test, Pulsating test, Fatigue test and Dynamic Panel test.

The sleepers are cheaper than its wooden counterpart. FRP sleepers offer certain critical advantages like good rail holding, electrical resistivity & anti-corrosive properties, bearing toughness & vibration absorption characteristics and offer material qualities superior to that of any conventional materials used so far.

Indian Railways have inducted 88 nos. sleepers for carrying out field trials in four locations. On successful completion of the field trials, the railways have decided to induct the FRP sleepers on a large-scale by 2002.

The project dealt with developing composite endoskeleton type below-knee artificial limb. The artificial limbs developed under the project are light-weight and better in control & appearance with improved gait for the patients. Composite artificial limbs should find wider acceptance among developing countries.

The artificial limb consists of five parts: a FRP tubular structure fabricated by filament winding of glass fibre in epoxy matrix, top & bottom connectors made by injection moulding of glass filled nylon, a polyurethane foot with composite keel embedded in it and a polypropylene socket to accommodate the amputee stump.

The socket made of polypropylene is patient specific and does not create any problems like pressure sores even for diabetic patients. The FRP tube connects the socket to the foot. All the five parts and the socket are adjustable to meet individual requirements and to take care of static & dynamic alignment patterns.

A very innovative design approach was adopted for designing FRP keel for providing improved strength & flexibility in the foot piece. All the components of the limb were designed on the basis of theoretical analysis using CAD software (CSA/NASTRAN) for typical compression loads at different angles, momentary impact etc.

The evaluation of individual components and also of the entire endoskeleton assembly for compressive & bending strength were carried out. A simulated endurance test was conducted for 5-year service life of the artificial limb. More than 700 patients have been fitted with these limbs in & around Chennai.

The endoskeleton type below-knee artificial limb developed by Mohana Orthotics was awarded the prestigious National R&D Award 2001 by the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR), Govt. of India.

The project launched in partnership with M/s Hindustan Fibre Glass Works, Vadodara has been a collaborative effort by a multi-agency task force involving the Industrial Design Centre & Dept. of Aerospace Engineering of IIT – Bombay, RDSO-Lucknow, RCF-Kapurthala, ICF-Chennai and Carriage Repair Workshop of Western Railway, Mumbai.

The FRP toilet unit consists of four parts : the flooring trough, two L-shaped side-walls & roof. All the four parts are fastened together with self-tightening screws at the mating faces and their assembling is done inside the coach. The salient features are :

The FRP toilet is light in weight, corrosion resistant, fire retardant, has longer life with easy maintainability. Being modular in design, the whole toilet unit can be installed in 3-4 hours inside the coach.

Four nos. FRP toilet units were fitted to an AC-II Tier coach of Rajdhani Express (Delhi-Mumbai) in October 2001. The coach fitted with composite toilets has been operating on regular basis. Further, 36 nos. FRP toilets were fitted to Jan Shatabdi Express (Mumbai-Madgaon) in April 2002. The Indian Railways have decided to induct FRP toilets for retrofitting in old coaches as well as for new trains.

The project bagged the Certificate of Merit under the prestigious National Award for Excellence in Consultancy Services-2001 given by the Consultancy Development Centre of the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Govt. of India.

It is evident from the above that excellent economic advantage & technology implications in terms of creating material with superior properties, substituting costlier/scarce materials, developing value-added applications and most importantly, business volume generation could be accomplished for a few select composite products & applications in India.

The Mission also attempted spearheading technology incubation by setting up twoComposite Design Centre. These are the Composite Design Centre at RV College of Engineering, Bangalore and Composite Technology Centre (COMPTEC) at IIT, Chennai.

These Centres are engaged in evolving design standard for selective composite products, prototype development, developing design modules & related software packages for composite products. They are actively involved in diffusion of technology and their services among the Indian composite industries.

The CDC at Bangalore functions as an independent technology incubation agency. They have designed and developed over 180 composite products with potential applications in housing and industrial sectors. The technology for FRP door based on a low-cost sandwich technology, has been transferred to fifty industries by the Centre.

CDC on completion of initial technology development activity, works out the project economics, prepares the detailed technology transfer document and imparts all the necessary support to an entrepreneur for technology absorption thus encompassing the entire spectrum of technology incubation.

The technology transfer package involves direct hands-on training for the entrepreneurs, assistance in equipment & material procurement and also marketing support. The Centre has been approached by Govt. of Karnataka to set up a composite technology park near Bangalore.

The Centre at IIT-Madras is providing technical support services such as product design consultancy, prototype development to the industries, supporting continuing education programmes etc. The credibility of the centre has been established amongst various composites industries in the country.

The composite study modules, prepared by the Centre, are being disseminated to the industries on payment basis. Testing & characterization equipment viz. differential scanning calorimeter, dynamic mechanical analyzer & simultaneous thermo-gravimetric analyzer & differential thermal analyzer have been installed and utilized the characterization & testing equipment for carrying out various testing assignments from the industries on chargeable basis.

These Centres are excellent examples of technology incubation & demonstration for composite products & services. The design centre at Bangalore has already been invited by the Government of Bangladesh to set up similar Centre near Dhaka. The Centre has also been interacting closely with the industries for providing design & technical Consultancy on innovative process technology.

Another important initiative of the Advanced Composites Mission has been towards promoting Manpower Training programmes, conducting short term courses on composites, its fabrication & testing for the sponsored candidates through these programmes. There has been an attempt to bridge the gap between the personnel working at different levels in composite industries.

On assessing the multiple benefits that could be accrued from promoting value-added applications of bamboo a National Mission on Bamboo Applications is being envisaged under the 10th Five-Year Plan by the Govt. of India. With the use of improved composite technologies, Bamboo can substitute plastics, steel and cement in novel applications for architecture, furniture and agricultural tools & implements with an advanced design support. The salient features of bamboo are as follows :

As a prelude to the National Bamboo Mission by the Govt. of India, the Advanced Composites Mission has launched a project on ‘Bamboo Composite Laminates’ as wood substitute in partnership with M/s. Emmbee Forest Products Pvt. Ltd., Manabari, Dist. Jalpaiguri.

The Department of Polymer Science & Technology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata would provide technical support for the project. The project aims at developing a complete range of bamboo composite laminates for furniture, flooring tiles, boards, door & window frames to replace the use of timber.

These laminates would be moulded with innovative resin system for reduced energy requirement and no phenolic emissions as desired in the international market. The project would promote innovative & non-traditional usage of bamboo while simultaneously promising good economic return on bamboo cultivation.

While inter-linking the bamboo growers, large-scale industrial processing, expertise from academia and user agencies, the project is expected to generate good employment opportunities.

In the wake of disastrous damages by the earthquake in Gujarat, the Advanced Composites Mission came forward to contribute to the national efforts of re-building and rehabilitation.

Jute-coir composite boards, rice husk particle boards, FRP toilet blocks, multipurpose FRP handcarts and composite artificial limbs etc., developed under the Mission projects, addressed the crucial need of the hour – post-disaster relief at the quickest possible time! Under the TIFAC Rehab Project for Kachchh, the following initiatives were taken up for the quake affected people :

With the availability of higher financial resources from other agencies, the above activities are now being replicated by the project partners to reach wider cross-section of affected people.

Conclusion

While the Mission activities have proliferated encompassing a large number of composite applications but it is now felt that concerted actions would are required towards technology transfer in the international arena as well as improving the market reach of Indian composite products.

There is an urgent need to spearhead technology development, demonstration & diffusion of novel composite products to increase the awareness, technology adaptation, technology sourcing & subsequent transfer etc. There exists a considerable capability in India in the form of glass & natural fibre & resin availability, technological knowledge-base, adequate manpower for composite technology development due to its superior properties and lower life-cycle cost. Apart from substituting scarce natural resources, synthetic & renewable composite materials would also revolutionize material application technologies thus embarking into newer and more improved application areas.

An efficient technology incubation mechanism such as the Advanced Composites Mission can help achieving the desired objectives and can help in bridging the gap between the users & industry thus reaching the products being developed to the market.

For further information, please contact Mr. S. Biswas at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it