Infrastructure Facilities
PGM -Electronics Centre and HILS-facility at ARDE
The Precision Guided Munition (PGM)-Electronics Centre and HILS-Facility at Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), Pune, was inaugurated on 06 June 2011 by Shri Anil M Datar, OS and Director, ARDE, Pune. This Centre has three parts, viz., control electronics, guided sensors and hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS). The facilities available at this Centre are inertial test setup, precision acceleration test setup, three-axes flight motor simulator, two-axes linear trial motion simulator, GPS simulator, and electronic integration facility for PGM. This Centre will be specialised in electronics for PGMs.
Prototype Manufacturing Unit (PMU)
Prototype Manufacturing Unit (PMU) is the single largest engineering service group of ARDE, where the creative ideas of designers are converted into concrete realities. It is a modern general-purpose engineering manufacturing complex, built for speedy production of prototypes, subsystems, components, test rigs, etc., required for various armament projects.
PMU provides a broad spectrum of facility ranging from conventional machines to machines like Electric Discharge Sawing Machine, Electric Discharge Machine, Wire Electric Discharge Machine, Flow Forming Machine, etc. Apart from this, PMU have facility for high speed precision machine tools like 5 axis CNC Milling, CNC Turning, CNC Engraving, etc. All the facilities are upgraded from time to time to keep pace with the latest technology and techniques
PMU further incorporates an excellent Metrology / Measurement Facility including Computerized Three Coordinate Measuring Machine, Length Measuring Machine, Profile Projectors, etc., to ensure the quality of the manufactured products.
Environmental Test Facilities
All armament stores before being accepted for introduction into service are required to withstand exposure to a wide range of natural and induced environmental conditions. In the Indian sub-continent, the armaments are required to perform under extremes of temperature, humidity and at high altitudes during their life cycle. Their performance under severe environment conditions is being assured at the design stage itself by subjecting them to a variety of climatic and transportation tests simulating the service environments. The climatic tests include ISAT-A, ISAT-B and several other tests involving combination of high/low temperature, 5 to 95% humidity and low pressure conditions simulating altitude effect. The transportation and handling tests include sinusoidal and random vibrations and shock testing up to 30,000 ‘g’. The vibration tests are also being coupled with high-low temperatures and humidity levels as desired. Most of these facilities are operated round the clock and the services are offered to the other users. This is the unique facility in the country for handling experimental explosive-filled hazardous items for a wide spectrum of environmental tests.
Instrumentation
Armament technology being a highly experiment-oriented discipline, considerable emphasis is placed on instrumented firing trials during the evaluation of the design of a weapon system. Over the years comprehensive instrumentation facilities have been developed to facilitate acquisition of physical data, as a support service for the entire range of armament projects. Facilities include : Transient measurement of real time pressure in small arms, mortars, rockets guns; velocity measurement of projectiles; recoil and run out velocity of guns; acceleration and displacement study of escape aid cartridges; photometric measurement of illuminating ammunition, delay measurements, video recording trials, ultra high speed photo-instrumentation for recording events up to 4 million pps using a variety of electronically controlled cameras and 450 KV flash x-ray radiography for study of high speed phenomena in armaments.
Explosives Engineering Complex
Explosives being inherently hazardous involving high risk to human life, are required to be handled and processed in specially created facilities as per regulation laid down by STEC. Facilities include magazines, filling, casting, pressing and precision machining of HE charges and break down and assembly rooms to cater for the specialized needs of the design groups.
Pashan Ranges
All armament equipments must pass through prolonged and vigorous trial and testing before they get the final stamp of approval from the Services. To facilitate limited technical trials, Pashan Ranges have been established and comprise the facilities of 1000 m and 25 m SA ranges, 100 m SA velocity tunnel, sand butt tunnel for firing of high caliber guns, 30 m Para drop tower, Leaning Tower for aircraft seat ejection studies and firing of small HE charges. It is obvious that the full range of firing trials cannot be conducted in Pashan Ranges which is located in the vicinity of a metropolitan city. ARDE, therefore, relies heavily on the range resources available from the Services and sister establishments.
Technical Information Research Centre (TIRC)
The first and foremost requirement for conducting meaningful R&D work in a multi-disciplinary area like armaments is the availability of a well equipped TIRC. In an era of information explosion the engineer and the scientist need to have access to up-to-date information in their relevant areas of interest through journals, books, reports, bibliographical services, etc. so that precious time is not lost in ‘reinventing the wheel’. The cross fertilization of ideas from various disciplines cannot accrue without a well organized library. This information need is adequately met by the TIRC with its well-balanced collection of books, research reports, standards and Indian and foreign periodicals. The TIRC has also augmented its digital collection by acquiring full-text CDs of Indian Standards, Encyclopedia Britannica, etc.
TIRC brings out several current awareness publications such as a daily newspaper clippings service, monthly indexing and abstracting bulletin, current contents of books and periodicals. These services help our scientists to keep abreast of the current developments in the fields of their interest. Internet-based information is retrieved and downloaded on need basis. E-mail service is also provided by TIRC.
TIRC has always been modernizing its resources and services to keep pace with the advances in Information Technology, and to take up new challenges to serve the readers better.
Centre for Advance Design Analysis and Simulation (CADAS)
ARDE has setup a state-of-the-art Centre for Advance Design Analysis and Simulation to meet the futuristic needs for the design and development of complex armament systems. The Centre is equipped with workstations on IRIX, ranging from Indy, Indigo to 02. A number of SGI 330 Visual Workstations are being used for solid modeling. At present many seats of I-DEAS for Solid Modeling and ANSYS/LS-DYNA are also available for finite element analysis.
The main function of this center is to design and analyze armament stores being developed under various projects using CAD/CAE tools. The application of CAD/CAE software is essential to model, simulate, and optimize the development of specialized armament equipment all within a single integrated environment. Studies required for the development of specialized materials requiring high thermal loading and high strain rates can be performed with these tools. This process is to ensure success in the design and development of weapon system.
This present infrastructure is being upgraded through the installation a Multi-CPU UNIX based server to deliver high computing power and very number crunching capabilities A few more high-end graphic workstations are also being installed to augment this facility. A rapid prototyping system is being installed to meet the requirements of this establishment. The main objective is not only to reduce the development time but also to take the design level of armament system to the next higher level in terms of quality and reliability.
Computing and Networking Solutions (CNS)
Computing and Networking Solutions (CNS) Division aims to meet the technical and administrative requirements of the Establishment using computers. Local Area Networks have been implemented for the Administration Division, Material Management Division, TIRC, Technical Management Centre and Group Directors. These networks are integrated to provide software services for sharing Administrative Information, Stores / Material Information, Library Information and WEB Services under one roof. Databases are implemented on ORACLE8i for Pay and Allowances, Personal Information, Computer Information, TA/DA, GPF and Income Tax. A number of standalone Local Area Networks are also implemented. Prominent among these is the Centre of Advance Design Analysis and Simulation which houses SGI Workstations ranging from SGI 330 Visual Workstations on MS Win NT to SGI Indy, Indigo and O2 High-end workstations on IRIX.
Local Area Networks in the various locations in this establishment are being integrated to have an Intranet facility. Compaq ML 570, a four CPU enterprise level server, is being installed along with a Network Chassis Switch. The switch provide 36 Nos. of UTP ports on 100 Mbps, 12 Nos. of fiber ports on 100 Mbps, 9 GB Nos. of fiber ports on 1 GB and 4 Nos. of LX - fiber ports on 100 Mbps for very long distances. The network is designed to implement variety of features like layer 3, port trunking, VLAN and prioritization. The network links a variety of geographical locations varying from a few meters upto a maximum distance of 5 km supporting speeds from 10 Mbps to 1000 Mbps.