BHEL Doubles R&D spend, Trebles Turnover from Products developed in-house to Rs.25,100 Million in just two years

During 2006-07, out of its total turnover of Rs.187,020 Million, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has achieved a record turnover of Rs.25,100 Million – nearly 14% of the total turnover, through commercialization of products and systems developed by way of in-house Research and Development efforts. This is the result of a constant thrust on developing new technologies and products, besides improving existing products and systems in terms of reliability, cost and quality through in-house R&D initiatives.

Significantly, during the year, BHEL spent over Rs.2,380 Million on R&D efforts - nearly 58% more than the previous year and among the highest in India. In fact, the R&D spend has doubled and the turnover from in-house developed products has tripled in the last two years.

BHEL has crafted a ‘Strategic Plan 2012’ for ensuring sustained profitable growth and to enable the company to achieve a turnover of US$10 billion by 2011-12. As per the plan, the engineering and technology character of the organization shall also be enhanced with focus on innovation and R&D, where the R&D spend will be further increased by at least four times from the current levels.

A notable achievement of fiscal 2006-07 has been the establishment of BHEL’s fourth World-class Centre of Excellence for Surface Engineering, aimed at consolidating its strengths in crucial technology areas, developing cutting-edge technologies and improving manufacturing processes. BHEL has also filed 114 patents and copyrights, which are in productive use in its business.

New products and systems developed during the year for various infrastructure sectors of the economy include, a maintenance-free and more reliable Brushless Exciter for Hydro Generators; an 1100 kW Flameproof Squirrel Cage Induction Motor against an export order from PDO, Oman; a Bowl Mill (XRS 943) for installation in blast furnaces, which saves coke and facilitates longer wear life for rollers and an advanced digital flame scanner based on microcontroller technology called ‘BHELSCAN’ for reliable flame monitoring in boilers.

Aimed at increasing passenger hauling capacity by eliminating the need for separate generator coaches, BHEL has developed a new generation 320 kW Traction Alternator with Hotel Load Companion Alternator to be used on Indian Railways’ 3,600 HP BG Diesel Electric Locomotives. Also, as part of BHEL’s efforts to provide modern, safe and more efficient transportation solutions, a state-of-the-art, in-house developed IGBT based three-phase drive system for 700 HP Diesel Electric locos has been tested comprehensively.

In conformity with BHEL’s concern for society and environment, a more energy efficient single cylinder non-reheat steam turbine for 100–140 MW application has been developed, suitable for plants where large amounts of waste heat is available and reheat option is not feasible. This is the largest single-cylinder steam turbine engineered by BHEL so far. An order has been placed by Tata Steel for a 120 MW turbine.

R&D and technology development are of strategic importance to the company as it operates in a competitive environment where technology is a major factor. BHEL's R&D programme focuses on areas like state-of-the-art control & instrumentation systems; clean-coal technologies; improved T&D products/ systems; high-efficiency silt-resistant hydro turbines and improved transportation systems, etc.