E-IJPM: Vol. 44/4 - MPIF

POWDER METALLURGY IN INDIA
42
2010. Automotive firms such as Ford India and
Honda Siel, along with domestic firms such as
Ashok Leyland and Maruti Suzuki, have spent a
total of $80 million.10
PM EDUCATION
PM courses are taught in engineering schools
having a Metallurgical/Materials Engineering
branch. In other disciplines, PM is included as a
part of manufacturing processes courses. The
rigor of structure/properties/performance relationships
in PM processing is invariably dealt with
in the metallurgical/materials engineering discipline.
The latest publication of the author,11 based
on these a relationships, has received favorable
reaction. From the beginning, the Indian Institute
of Technology, Kanpur, contributed to the teaching
of PM in a quantitative and design-oriented mode.
Elective courses were also developed at both the
undergraduate and postgraduate levels; these
include Sintering and Sintered Products; Sintered
Tool Materials, and Advances in Powder
Metallurgy. The Indian Institute of Technology,
Mumbai, which was active in PM education, is of
late emphasizing ceramics. The Information
Technology (IT) boom in India has been somewhat
of a detriment to the “hard core” engineering disciplines.
Students migrate to the IT industries
because of lucrative salaries, and neither the manufacturing
industries nor the government have
any clear plan to mitigate the challenge this poses.
PMAI
The Powder Metallurgy Association of India
(PMAI), founded in 1973 at the initiative of R.V.
Tamhankar, organizes annual technical meetings
and refresher courses for personnel from the PM
industry. In early 2008, the 34th Annual
Technical Meeting was held in Chennai. Of late,
the established PM companies appear to show
less enthusiasm for these professional events. The
cemented carbide industries find an improved
kinship with the Machine Tool Manufacturing
Associations. The situation appears similar to
that described by K.H. Roll in his extensive review
of the first 50 years of the Metal Powder
Industries Federation during the 1950s.12 Other
organizations such as the Indian Ceramic Society
and the Materials Research Society of India also
offer scope and flexibility for participation from
the PM community.
CONCLUSIONS
PM in India is developing at a steady rate, but
one would like to see a quantum jump. There is
enough scope to diversify into non-automotive PM
parts, but this requires a vigorous campaign. In
brief, the PM industry must strive for:
• Alliances with strategic partners
• Development of specialized products for key
customers through enhanced application
engineering
• Improvement in supply capacity and a reduction
in lead times
• Improvement in consistency of quality
through total quality management (TQM) and
Six Sigma programs
• Strengthening marketing initiatives
• Comprehensive branding exercise
• Training of technical manpower, particularly
at the middle level
• Interaction with global vendors
REFERENCES
1. G.S. Upadhyaya, “Status of Powder Metallurgy in India,”
Powder Metall. Int., 1975, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 197–200.
2. G.S. Upadhyaya, “Powder Metallurgy in India,” Powder
Metall. Int., 1986, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 223–224.
3. G.S. Upadhyaya, “Powder Metallurgy in India,” Int. J. of
Powder Metall., 1988, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 259–262.
4. G.S. Upadhyaya, “Powder Metallurgy in India,” Int. J. of
Powder Metall., 1990, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 391–395.
5. P.K. Johnson, “Growth Opportunities for Growth in
India”, Int. J. of Powder Metall., 2007, vol. 43, no. 3, pp.
9–13.
6. D. Chenoy, Hindustan Times, February 26, 2008.
7. Technology Roadmap by the Core Group on Automotive
R&D, Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, New Delhi,
March 2006.
8. P. Datta and G.S. Upadhyaya, “Sintered Duplex Stainless
Steels from Premixes of 316L and 434L Powders,”
Materials Chemistry and Physics, 2001, vol. 67, no. 1–3,
p. 234–242.
9. G.S. Upadhyaya, “Powder Metallurgy at Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur,” Int. J. of Powder Metall., 1991, vol.
27, no. 1, pp. 59–64.
10. N. Mrinalini and S. Wakdian, “Foreign R&D Centres in
India,: Is there any Positive Impact?”, Current Science,
2008, vol. 94, no. 4, p. 452–458.
11. G.S. Upadhyaya and A. Upadhyaya, Materials Science and
Engineering, Anshan Ltd., Tunbridge Wells, Kent, U.K.,
2007.
12. K.H. Roll, “The First Fifty: A History of the First Half
Century of the Metal Powder Industries Federation”, Fifty
Years of Service to Powder Metallurgy 1944–1994, Metal
Powder Industries Federation, Princeton, NJ, 1994. ijpm
Volume 44, Issue 4, 2008
International Journal of Powder Metallurgy