NJHPS acquires hard coating facility for underwater machinery

Shimla, Oct 21 (UNI) To overcome the problem of transportation of heavy machinery and effectively carry out hard coating on its various underwater turbine components facing silt erosion problem, Nathpa Jhakri Hydro Power Station (NJHPS) has undertaken the High Velocity Oxy Fuel (HVOF) hard coating facility at its project site.

The state of art equipment comprising of a Six Axis Thermal Spray Robot has already been imported from Germany to obviate the necessity of sending such components outside the project area for hard coating.

With the in house establishment of this facility, the project would be able to carry out hard coating job on the eroded under water components as and when required thereby eliminating the cause of delay on account of landslides and snow while transporting over dimensional consignments.

The facility will also be helpful in research and development of newer coating solutions against silt erosion in Himalayan region for further life longevity of under water parts.

After commissioning of this facility, the project would be able to hard coat even the heaviest components such as runner weighing around 40 tonne in its workshop which hitherto could not be hard coated because of the transportation constraints.

With this unique addition, NJHPS will be the first Hydro Power Project in the country to have such a facility of its own to tackle the problem of slit erosion being faced at its storage Dam site.

The other Hydro Power Stations coming up in the Satluj basin would also be able to utilise this facility in order to maximize their generation, a NJHPS spokesman added.

UNI