EPHL offers new facility to Myanmar Navy

 Pune-based machine tool builder Electropneumatics and Hydraulics India (EPHL), in partnership with Goa Shipyard (GSL), is all set to deliver a new turnkey project ‘Damage Control Simulator’ (DCS) worth over Rs 50 crore to the Myanmar Navy, a top company executive said.

“The Damage Control Simulator (DCS) is a first-of-its-kind facility in India, which we built for the Indian Navy in 1999, in partnership with GSL, at INS Lonavala,” EPHL Director (Operations and Marketing), Prashant Gadepalli told Deccan Herald, on the sidelines of the ongoing Imtex 2016.

Gadepalli explained that DCS is a replica of a ship, a completely indigenous facility for the Indian Navy to train crew in damage control situations in the event of ship damage or sinking. It simulates the ship motion on waves using hydraulic actuators and motion controls and also real-life scenarios such as flooding in an environment of smoke, and noise. DCS is a three-deck steel structure supported on end bearings on portal frames. At a given time, around 50 cadets can be trained.

“Our role includes civil works, fabrication, hydraulics and control system design, erection and commissioning at site, Gadepalli added.

Gadepalli said that before the DCS was built in 1999, the Indian Navy could only send a select few officers to England for training. Now, it is possible to train each sailor and officer. Not only the Indian Navy, but this facility is used to train Naval officers of friendly countries in South and South East Asia, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Thailand.

“After undergoing training on our DCS in India, the Myanmar Navy approached GSL to build a similar facility in Yangon. Over a 100 people worked on this project in Myanmar, which is expected to be completed by March,” Gadepalli added.

In 2010, the company built a simulator in Kochi, and another is in the pipeline at Visakhapatnam, which will be completed in 2018.

Electropneumatics has been providing innovative solutions for forming applications since 1972 and has a staff of over 600 employees.  The company has pioneered many indigenous innovations like hydroforming, AC servo drives and now India’s first indigenous CNC controls for machining applications.

The company has four divisions which includes fluid power (FPD), machine manufacturing (MMD), component manufacturing (CMD) and drives and controls (EPMPC). Electropneumatics makes around 200 machines per year and exports to over 25 countries.