THE MOULDING MACHINES AT BPL

BPL  had an inhouse Moulding Factory in Whitefeild more precisely few kilometers before Hope-Farm which made TV cabinets.There were two large moulding machines that used to work round-the-clock using granules of PolyButyl Terrra Pthalate. Some of these moulding tools were imported from Taiwan.The TV cabinets were later painted in the painting shop.

The DGM at this plant used to be Mr.Valsakumar who worked at BEL earlier. BPL had three key BEL people join them ,Mr.Mathew, Mr.Ramasubbu who used to handle purchase  and Mr. Valsakumar.Mr. Mathew was later GM of BPL. BPL was in many ways an extraordinary institution and had competent people of various  skills.

Technology has changed so fast that the DOME technology TV does not exist any longer with FST technology taking over.

INFERNO (FIRE) IN GRAPHITE INDIA PLANT

 I was a witness to a major fire in the GRAPHITE INDIA plant in 1992.Industrial fires are of a major concern around the world as it can create huge economic losses and an extended and un-predictable down time.

Graphite India used to have a Baking unit which bakes charge coming from Extrusion department.It used to be done with furnace oil  in pits at a temperature of 800 degrees centigrade. Calcined petroleum coke and pitch are the key ingredients of making graphite which is a by-product of the Petroleum refining industry.

On that afternoon welding was happenning near by and a spark lit the oil largely that was scattered on the ground.The GM of Graphite India was A K JAIN and the Joint General Manager was Kersi KUKA.I used to have good relations with Kersi Kuka.A K Jain was out of town and Mr.Kuka was supervising things and sometimes had the temerity to go close to the fire which was ill-advised.

What ensued later was a very major fire towering above the plant and the fire engines arrived almost two hours later and doused the flames.

There was fire in BPL plant one night during over-time when some spark from some soldering machine lit cotton waste in the corner.

One of the reasons why I am putting these on record is that Indusrial engineers and managers must do everything possible to prevent fires.Sparks from the welding process have created fires at many places.The resonsibility of predicting possible fires and extinguishing them very early is a key aspect of Industrial engineering which would prevent huge losses to all stake holders and prevent organizations from going into a reverse gear.

THE AUTOMATIC JAPANESE SOLDERING MACHINES IN BPL

 From 1980 to year 2000 full twenty years BPL made Television sets now called the Dome TV. Mrs.Indira Gandhi on returning as Prime Minister sanctioned the large scale expansion of TV transmitters creating a sudden explosion of the Television Market. There were hardly any tv's in the country and only very few very privileged people had them. The sudden explosion of the TV market meant a huge demand for TV sets and there was only one channel namely the DOORDARSHAN.

Dyanora, Solidaire ,Bush were all few names during these times and into this market gate-crashed a less known electronics company called BPL which was till then known for making Medical Electronics products. With the pioneering spirit of its JMD (Joint Managing Director) K P R Nambiar BPL for several years later had dominance in various forms over the TV industry.

Initially TV was made with hands-on soldering and with time imported two automatic soldering machines from SANYO.

These machines were of a splendid nature and showed superior Japanese engineering skills of these times.Some twenty  operators would stuff the PCB( printed circuit board) in a production line and it would enter the machine  which operated with many sets of relays..the most key part being a solder bath at very high temperature arising on the operation of a relay and automatically soldering the entire PCB and another set of two TUNGSTEN CARBIDE cutters driven at high RPM cutting the leads of the electronic components after soldering. With the arrival of these machines the Production quantity at BPL quadrupled. The machine had a circular design with PCB's taking a U turn at both ends.It was a treat watching them work.

There must be such machines in vogue even today. These machines can give sudden maintenance problems of many kinds and periodic servicing of some kind and spares replacement can prevent break downs and critical maintenance issues.

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S F ANGRE and myself at BPL

At BPL I had professional association with an elderly and experienced person by name S F ANGRE. Angre used to work in Colour Television planning department and was a person of Marati origins and used to speak the Marati language well. My first association with Mr.Angre was at the OMR old madras road factory ..on retirement he was re-accommodated at the 80 koramangala transformer shop where we got to know each other even better.He was basically a knowledgeable person.

There was a Supply Chain problem at this place with regards to a lamination used for  a VCR power transformer which was suddenly in short supply. I dont remember the exact type now but must have been type 30 crngo. One Mr.Kamath was a principal supplier of this lamination(and another jyothi industries in Banashankari II stage) but could not keep up the demand which saw me and Mr. Angre in a sourcing difficulty.We set out one morning and visited few suppliers in Rajajinagar Industrial area but most of them could not give a strong assurance of making supplies. the supply of this lamination is dependent on the  electric motor industry ...after the stamping s for the electric motor is cut from the metal sheets the motor companies sell the remnant as scrap and from the corners of the sheet e and i type laminations are stamped by  transformer lamination suppliers. KIRLOSKAR ELECTRIC  and GKW were suppliers if this scrap.  Mr.Angre knew Mr.Ambekar Senior Vice President at Kirloskar and our next task was to meet him and we were inside the Kirloskar plant in Malleswaram. I think Sudindra and Mr.Parthasarathy were the purchase managers at Kirloskar but some how we were in dilemma as they were not of much help to solve our problem.

Almost that afternoon after lunch I was having a stroll in the Koramangala Industrial Area and suddenly saw a company Babji Enterprises who was in the Electrical Lamination business.In Koramangala industrial area itself there was a supplier which we were unaware of. I spoke to Mr.Babji and he said ...any amount of tonnage..i can sevice you...I still remember his confidence.I spoke to Mr. Muddapur plant in-charge of BPL at Bommanahalli and he asked me to take a sample.By evening a sample was given by Babji Enterprises which was tested on a transformer and the no-load-current was exactly what it should be and the price also was less and we took lot of supplies from him thereafter.

This is in 1990 and there were no mobile phones or internet and that I was able to find a supplier on a casual walk through the koramangala industrial area that too who could give a finer quality at a much better price left me and many wonder-struck.

SOLVING THE TRANSFORMER PROBLEM AT BPL

It was somewhere in 1988 or 1989 ..I was working at the BPL Transformer shop in 80 Koramangala Industrial Estate where coils and transformers were made for Television sets.

There were two key power transformers made at this plant and I being basically an Electrical Engineer found great joy in handling these transformers. One of these transformers stepped down 230 volts to 15 volts..the problem started when Sanyo stopped the supply of these transformers and it had to be made in-house.These transformers were used in the LAN model which was a remote controlled TV.

The original Japanese transformer was very concise and elegant and duplicating it would be an herculean task..we tried to reverse engineer one of those transformers but were not successful which bespeaks of the competence of Japanese manufacturing technology.

However a local design was developed...some 3000 turns of 44 gauge  wire on the primary side..and some 300 turns of guage 34 on the secondary side with I think type 17 crngo laminations. I dont precisely remember the design but it was something like this. But the problem was it should withstand 4000 volts which it wasn't.

The problem is that majority of the Engineering personnel at BPL of that time were Electronics people who panicked at this issue but I knew it could be done.

One afternoon I wrapped the transformer tightly with three layers of teraoka tape and the transformer was withstanding 4000 volts. Many batches were made using my prototype and finally we succeeded in orchestrating a full plastic version similar to the Japanese one.

I did something at BPL in retrospect which saved the situation interim.

TALES ABOUT MY KINETIC HONDA

In the year 1995 more precisely June 1995 I bought a Kinetic Honda Scooter for 35,000/- the money largely financed by my parents and life was too good after that and became more enchanting considering the flow with which I could move from one place to another.It gave me nearly twenty years of service and now retired and parked at home giving way for a new Honda Activa.

In all I must have travelled some 3,00,000 kilometers on it during the twenty year course and may it be said it bought goodfortune for me in many ways.

I have travelled to many places on it ..Tumkur..Mysore ....and what a joy it was to ride it with only few skirmishes to remember..one a fall from it and another a collision with a push cart wagon.

The vehicle has served us in right earnest.In 2002 my sister was stranded on M G Road when her BPL  office was declared prematurely complete owing to the confinement of Dr.Rajkumar by Veerappan and I got a call from her about the commotion around and the absence of public transport.I took the vehicle monouvering through columns of hooligans who had amassed the streets brought her home to safety.This was an event of sorts.

In 2006 the demise of Dr.Rajkumar was announced and I was found to be in the middle of ring road in Bangalore with tyres around being burnt and my two-wheeler failing to start...i was upset and parked the ehicle to the side and looking for some one who could service it and all shops closed because of the chaos and confusion. I rushed the vehicle into a Car service center and one of those staff though not a regular one to repair a two-wheeler offered to try to service it with the tools on the vehicle.Apparently the plug adaptor had dislodged itself and he set it right and before long I was speeding away.

I had gone to Indiranagar for some work on my return from the US one afternoon.I parked the vehicle outside Shanti Sagar and went in to have lunch and on return was staggered to find my vehicle was not there.The pan stall person told me that Tiger had taken the vehicle.Tiger later I came to know was Traffic Police pick-up van or the tow van.Apparently I had parked hardly an inch into some line.I was told the vehicle is with the Traffic Police office near Isolation Hospital and I had to take an auto to the destination and as usual following the niceties got the vehicle back.

Many times the tyre of the vehicle used to go flat...and I used to fit the spare tyre from some near-by shop and remember once the spark-plug giving away and getting it replaced from a near-by service shop.

One of my earliest memories with this two-wheeler was on the ring road which was just erected in 1997 with no vehicles or very minimal vehicles on the road and I found myself speeding at 90 kmph and what an elated feeling.In one such escapade the accelerator cable broke and I had to replace the cable.

I lost my helmet from within the IISc campus in 1999 or so near the JRD TATA auditorium.I had put my helmet which was a brand new one on the rear mirror and went in for a conference and on return found it missing.I lodged a complaint with IISc security staff then.

By mistake once I used a 4T  oil instead of 2T oil and I found the vehicle not at ease and sensing the problem in advance rushed to a nearby petrol pump and put full half litre of 2T oil  and saved the situation.

The Vehicle has helped me many a times to ferry my family to Hospitals and back on many occasions.

Much later when I was using the vehicle I used to get back pain..this was painful. I had fit a broader tyre on the back wheel creating higher jerks and weakening the shock absorber. The problem stopped after I changed the shock absorber.

One of the penultimate incidents with the vehicle happened in Komaghatta forests near Bangalore where I was foolishly riding a twenty year old bike at high speed.The bore got stuck and the vehicle ceased signalling for all practical purposes the end of service of the vehicle. Some revellers on the route may it be said to the greatness of this city pushed the vehicle from their bikes on foot giving it thrust from behind and before long reaching Kengeri from where I brought the vehicle home on a luggage truck.For all practical purposes the vehicle had to be shelved and a new one replaced. Hats' off my KINETIC HONDA you did your best and at times I used to call the vehicle Bucephalus. I forgot to mention that in its younger years I used to ride my sister to her law office in it when she was a law student.But let me state one thing. I prefer riding a two wheeler to driving a car.

Every one must experience the joy of riding a two wheeler boy or girl as it is the easiest way to travel from one place to another.Get your vehicle serviced regularly.Ride at optimum speeds. Do not use the same route always in case there is a traffic jam on certain routes..avoid these jams by re-routing..Try to replace the vehicle once in ten years..use helmet always and when you are younger parents must finance the purchase of the vehicle.

T P G NAMBIAR

The  founder of  BPL and a visionary par excellence..my sister used to work closely with him for few years.I used to meet him at some functions..

K T VIJAYAKRISHNAN DGM AT BPL

I had written earlier about BPL a manufacturing plant that thrived in Bangalore for many years in the business of making TV sets.

Much of the manufacturing was handled by team of engineering people. One key person was mr. K T Vijayakrishnan..starting with BPL somewhere in 1973 he went on to serve the enterprise with distinction until his demise somewhere in 1997. I used to see him in the plants many times late at night.

Hats off to the dedication he brought to BPL and its progress during this era.

AIR CRASH IN BANGALORE OF FEBRUARY 1990

There was an air crash in Bangalore flight 605 of Indian Airlines from Bombay to Bangalore on the 14th of February 1990. What a tragic day and for many weeks thereafter the city reverberated under its shock.

Bangalore for all practical purposes before the said date had a clear air record at least on the passenger aircraft front.There was no incident where-in a plane taking off from Bangalore or any plane coming in missed the destination. Cities like Chennai madras and Bombay Mumbai have had air accidents- but not Bangalore. There were stray incidents of may be small planes like the HF 24 crashing in the out skirts on some trial mission.

What happened was this.  Bombay -Bangalore flight 605 took off from Bombay at around 12;00 noon and scheduled to land at Bangalore at around 1:20 PM. It was an A320 jet with fly by wire technology commanded by S S Gopujkar and his accomplice. It possibly had its co-ordinates of Bangalore Airport wrongly fed...and the plane instead of landing on the runway foreclosed and landed some 150 meters from the wall of the Airport adjacent to the military lawns after mowing down a cow...by the time the pilot switched off the fly by wire and took manual control it was too late and there is zero possibility of the plane taking off again...the plane rammed though the ground on the hot afternoon ripping the wheels apart and screeching the belly for many meters and the fuel going up in flames and 92 of the 154 passengers charred ..and for the timely intervention of the Air-hostess who flung the back door open the rest jumped to safety and the tragedy of the situation being that the plane burnt and at the hostile and uninhabited terrain the fire engines could never approach and what followed was bizarre and horrific least said.

I deliberately refrain from putting any picture of this incident owing to the malady it can create and note that one of the Birla scions were on board and possibly sitting in the Business class was early to be consumed. What a tragedy  ? I was at the BPL plant in Koramangala that afternoon and was one of the early recipients of this news.

Sadly a nearly similar incident gripped   Mangalore Airport few years ago.

Some serious thoughts must go into Aircraft design. The fuselage assuming it is the fuel container..I am no aviation expert........must be covered with a sizeable layer of some fire extinguisher material which will be unleashed on impact to nuetralize any fire that is created by friction..this would create a weight penalty on take-off and alter dynamics but it will save lives. How and in what matter it could be executed must be thought of by manufacturing experts. Fire must be mitigated and intrinsically quenched. Airports could have a helicopter handy with fire extinguishing apparatus which could be pressed into use in instances like this when there are terrestrial hindrances

80 Koramangala Industrial Estate

8o Koramangala Industrial estate is a factory located in    Koramangala  Industrial Estate of Bangalore. Koramangala  Industrial   estate is a relatively small estate holding a hand full of organizations and I am speaking of the era in the mid and later mid 1980’s.

BPL as a company had many factories put up in this Industrial area..the pcb plant..two transformer factories and a press shop  and every  where it was BPL.

What BPL did in this transformer factory is very interesting……make transformers for  television sets and video cassette recorders , There were many transformers from very small to medium sized ones. There were sixty staff in all handling the operations.

Any one who wants to visit the Koramangala Industrial area Madiwala  Checkpost on Hosur road will be the ideal land mark.