Business Incubation Activities
Technology Transfer & Business Incubation Activities
Department worked towards development many new innovative products.Some of the department's contribution in terms of product development and innovation are highlighted below.
As a part of the MGIRI project following technologies have been developed by ME faculty.
Conversion kit for engines to run on biogas and producer gas: This technology would enable a rural entrepreneur to convert commercial diesel engines to operate efficiently on renewable fuels such as biogas and producer gas.
Biogas enrichment and bottling using pressurized water scrubbing: This technology has been demonstrated and transferred to an entrepreneur for production and marketing in commercial mode.
Energy efficient updraught pottery kiln for terracotta firing: This technology resulted in almost 40-50% fuelwood savings. It has been installed in several clusters all over the country, with specific emphasis on Bastar area of Chhattisgarh district.
Animal-driven prime movers for rural applications: This technology has been demonstrated at several sites including MGIRI campus at Wardha: the prime component of this system is the high efficiency gearbox for speed and torque conversion.
Pico-hydel turbines for power generation and shaft applications in remote areas: Different designs of small turbines of less than 10 kW capacity have been designed and installed in several sites both in the hills and in the plains for power generation as well as shaft applications.
Efficient burners for powdery biomass: Different designs of efficient burners for using the powdery fuels such as sawdust, rice husk, mustard husk etc. in thermal applications efficiently have been made and demonstrated.
Low-cost potters wheel out of locally available materials: A potters wheel was designed and fabricated out of locally available materials such as a motor, automobile tyre, fan belts, etc. such that it can be made in a village workshop with minimal cost. Technology demonstration workshop was held to train potters in making and using such wheels.
Anoop Chawla and Sudipto Mukherjee have designed a collapsible container that can be collapsed or erected in less than four minutes. A special platform, or base station, folds the containers hydraulically to one quarter its size. The process needs just one or two unskilled or semi-skilled persons. This new design is reported to be a major development in design of containers from the time when Malcolm McLean, a trucking entrepreneur from North Carolina, US, pioneered the use of containers for carrying cargo 52 years back.
Welding Lab is known for its Innovation. Universal electrode holder for shielded metal arc welding and Torch assembly for submerged arc welding are two of the notable product developed and patented by Prof Sunil Pandey.
Two Products Semi-Automatic Carpet Washing Machine and Drying Chamber were developed by department faculty Prof S K Saha and faculty from other departments. The technology concerning these two products is transferred to J&K Handicrafts, Srinagar where machines were installed, demonstrated and trainings were imparted to the washermen who would use the machine.
Dr P.V.M. Rao has participated in the development of Embedded Assistive Devices lead by Prof M Balakrishnan of Computer Science Department. Some of the successful products developed by the team include Smart cane for the Visually Challenged (technology transferred to Phoenix Medical Systems, Chennai) and Bus Identification System for the Visually Challenged.