In A Big Boost To 'Make In India' A Start-Up¡¯s Robot Helps Power Plant Save Crores Of Rupees

Make in India drive just got a shot in the arm after a city-based startup helped a power plant in Mundra save crores of rupees. Power generation at the plant came to halt after a hammer fell into a high-pressure steam pipe, and the start-up was called to pull out the hammer using one of its robots. The operation cost the plant around Rs 16 lakh.

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The expenditure would have spiked to the tune of Rs 5 crore, had the engineers at the plant decided to retrieve the hammer themselves. Pulkit Gaur and Govind Godedara from Gridbots Technologies in Ahmedabad were called into action at the TATA Power Plant in Mudra during the last weekend.

Power generation was halted after a 2 kg metal hammer fell into the high-pressure steam pipe during the scheduled maintenance drive. A top official from the power plant on the condition of anonymity told Mirror, "The 800 MW production unit was under maintenance when a hammer weighing around 2 kg fell into a steam pipe.

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The only alternative we had was to locate where the hammer stuck in the pipe, which would take around a week's time, had we not employed the robot. Then we would have had to cut the 3-inch thick pipe, retrieve the hammer, weld the pipes, get technical clearance from our monitoring authorities and the whole process would have resulted in a loss of around Rs 5 crore."

Instead of following conventional procedures, the authorities at the plant called Gridbot Technologies to pull out the hammer that was lodged 15 meters inside the pipe. Chief Technical Officer, Pulkit Gaur, and Head of Design and Manufacturing Division, Govind Godara from Gridbot, reached the plant on early Friday morning, last week.

Indian Power Sector/representational image

The duo had made modifications to the robot at their office in Ahmedabad and spent a whole day rehearsing their plan of action, before heading out to Mundra.

"As soon as we reached there, we realised a serious modification was required in the robot's gripper to pull out the hammer from a depth of 15 meters. What made work difficult was the 90 degree curvature of the pipeline.

However, we could locate the hammer within 30 minutes of commencing the operation," Gaur narrated. He added, "Because of the 90 degree curvature, it was difficult for the robot to retrieve the hammer without losing its grip. We applied maximum pressure to the gripper (equivalent to 250 kg) to ensure that the hammer doesn't slip."

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The operation took a mere three hours as opposed to the seven days it would have taken the engineers at the plant, had they followed conventional procedures.

The start-up

Gridbots Technologies is a start-up that was incubated in IIM Ahmedabad between 2009 and 201. Pulkit Gaur, has a degree in Bachelors in Engineering from Jodhpur University and established the company with his childhood friend Govind who is a Commerce graduate from the same varsity. The duo designs several robots for industrial use.