INDUSTRIAL VISIT REPORT
INTEGRAL COACH FACTORY -CHENNAI YERRA PRADEEP ME14B074
ABOUT INTEGRAL COACH FACTORY: Integral Coach Factory (ICF) is the only manufacturer of rail coaches located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It was established in 1952, is owned and operated by the Indian Railways and started production on 2 October 1955. The coach factory primarily manufactures cars for Indian Railways but also exports railway coaches to other countries. The Integral Coach Factory consists of two main divisions - shell division and furnishing division. The shell division manufactures the skeleton of the rail coach, while the furnishing division is concerned with the coach interiors and amenities. An ancillary unit to the Integral Coach Factory is being built in Haldia, West Bengal for furnishing diesel multiple units.[1] ICF manufactures more than 170 varieties of coach including first and second class coaches, pantry and kitchen cars, luggage and brake vans, self-propelled coaches, electric (EMU), diesel (DMU) and mainline electric multiple units (MEMU), metro coaches and diesel electric tower cars, accident relief medical vans (ARMV), inspection cars (RA), fuel test cars, track recording cars and luxury coaches. The plant employs about 13,000 people and manufactures about 1500 coaches per year. ICF churned out 1,503 coaches in 2010 and in August 2011, ICF was sanctioned a project for manufacturing stainless steel shells and high speed bogies and an increase in capacity from 1,500 to 1,700 coaches. In 2013-14, it built 25 LHB Coaches, 248 airconditioned and 1185 non-ac coaches. It plans to increase its manufacturing capacity of LHB coaches. It has set a target to manufacture 300 LHB coaches in 2014-15 and reach a capacity of 1000 LHB coaches by 2016-17. A total of 50,000 coaches had been produced till 18 Aug 2015 by ICF since its inception. A Regional Railway Museum is situated in the factory premises. It has a collection of nascent models of trains and models endemic to the Indian Railways. About 59.1 million units of electricity had been generated through the windmills installed by ICF in Tirunelveli district in 2011 which met 80 percent of the plant's electrical energy requirements.
The needs of the Indian Railways for various types of coaches, which may simple or advanced ones are being met by the integral coach factory. Some of the important ones are listed below: 1. SELF PROPELLED COACHES Electric Multiple Units for suburban services in Metropolitan cities; Diesel Rail Cars; Metro Coaches for Kolkata Metro Railways; Diesel Electric Multiple Units & Diesel Hydraulic Multiple Units for non- electrified routes and Mainline Electric Multiple Units for long distance inter-city commuter ship. Accident Relief Trains / Medical Vans OHE Inspection Cars 2. AIR-CONDITIONED PASSENGER COACHES
&
NON-AIRCONDITIONED
Air-conditioned Sleeper Coaches of first & second class; Air-conditioned Chair Cars of first and second class; Double Decker Coaches with seating capacity for 148 passengers as against the conventional 90 passengers. 3. SPECIAL COACHES Air-conditioned & Non-air-conditioned Pantry Cars High Capacity Power Cars for Shatabdi & Rajdhani Express Trains Air-conditioned Military Ward and Saloon Cars for Indian Army. Air-conditioned Saloon Cars, Dining Cars, Bar & Restaurant Cars, luxury suites for luxury tourist trains like Palace on Wheels (WR), Deccan Odyssey (CR), The Golden Chariot (SWR), Royal Rajasthan on Wheels (NWR) and Maharajas’ Express of IRCTC Lifeline Express for operation of hospital on wheels
Jet Deflector Crane Cars, Inter Communication Coaches for DRDO
EXPORT ICF’s achievement on the export front has been enviable since its inception. Against stiff international competition from more advanced countries like Japan, etc., ICF secured several export orders, most of which are repeat orders. So far, 359 bogies, 11 stainless steel coach shells and 481 coaches including airconditioned coaches have been exported to 13 Afro-Asian countries. ICF has bagged a number of awards for Export Excellence also. DESIGN & DEVLOPMENT EFFORTS Complementing the existing design capacities and facilities, a fully computerised Design & Development Cell has been set up with sophisticated state-of-the-art computer designing facilities and testing equipment both for coach components and raw materials. D&D Centre uses 3-D modelling on SolidWorks platform for generating 3-D drawings and IDEAS software for Finite Element Analysis.Strain gauge testing and squeeze test are done on prototypes before commencement of series production. PRODUCTION WITH INNOVATION ICF has carved a niche in the Indian Railway system by constantly improving the quality of travel through its passenger coach design which has undergone a sea- change from the days of bye-gone era of mere transport of passengers. There has been a steady growth both in the quality and quantity of its production. Over the years ICF has endeavoured to meet passengers expectations through innovations
Cushioned seats in General Second Class and SLR coaches Provision of Controlled Discharge Toilet Systems
Anti-injury features in the passenger areas of A/C 2-tier and Sleeper coaches
Enhanced carrying capacity in A/C 2-tier, First A/C and Garib Rath Chair Car
Provision of forced ventilation, PIS/PAS in AC/DC EMUs for WR and CR
UIC vestibules in mainline coaches
Disabled friendly features in SLRD/SRD coaches
Modular toilets in passenger coaches
Stainless steel panelling, handholds in EMUs
Provision of laptop and cell phone charging points in passenger coaches
Use of stainless steel in Pantry Cars including interiors and the equipment
Manufacturing: The Integral Coach Factory consists of two main divisions - shell division and furnishing division. The shell division manufactures the skeleton of the rail coach, while the furnishing division is concerned with the coach interiors and amenities. SHELL DIVISION: The coach manufacturing starts first in the Shell Division, where the body shell and bogie assemblies are done. The body shell assembly is of all welded integrated design, and it consists of Underframe, Sidewall, roof and end-wall assemblies. A Shell is made of a set of 2 Sidewalls, 2 end-walls, 1 Roof and 1 Underframe fitted on two Bogies. Activities of Shell Division a) Sheet metal shop produces all sheet metal items required for the manufacture of Underframe, Sidewall, End wall and Roof. b) Main Assembly shop assembles the Underframe, Sidewall, End wall and Roof to form a tube like SHELL. c) Bogie Frame manufacturing shop manufactures Bogie Frames by Laser Cutting, Press Brakes and Submerged Arc Welding machines. The components are then assembled in jigs and robotically or manually welded to get bogie frames.
d) Bogie frames, Bolsters, springs and wheels are assembled together and Bogies are tested in Bogie Testing machine before they are sent for wheeling. e) Final Assembly for fitment of Doors, Partition Frames and Wheeling of Bogies onto the Shells. The Shells fitted on the Bogies are despatched to Furnishing Division for painting and furnishing work.
A VIEW OF THE ICF
FURNISHING DIVISION: Aesthetic look, comfort and safety are very much essential for pleasant journey. Furnishing Division takes care of the above by furnishing the interior of the coaches. Each coach undergoes ten different stages. They are 1) Preparatory 6) Panelling- II 2) Flooring 7) Moulding 3) Wiring 8) Fitting 4) PVC plasting 9) Seats and Back Rests 5) Panelling – I 10) Pitline The Various processes undergoing in these stages in various shops are: Grit Blasting, Painting in Automatic Paint Booths, Drying in Ovens, Lettering Flooring, Wiring, Panelling on Side Walls, Window fixing, Partition Panelling, Plumbing, Floor Moulding, Lights & Fans fixing, Seats, Berths and Racks fixing, Air-conditioning
where required, adjustment
Brake
fitment
and
Buffer
height
The Furnishing Division also does assembly of Self Propelled Coaches where Engine/Electrics for DEMUs and Transformers/Motors for EMUs are fitted, commissioned and tested before despatch. Technological Upgradations in Furnishing: Use of UIC Rubber Vestibules, Roof Mounted A/C Package Units in coaches Fitment of Controlled Discharge Toilet System Use of polycarbonate seats in MRVC EMUs Use of FRP in Aerodynamic Nosecones of DEMUs Stainless steel panelling, handholds and grab rails in MRVC EMUs Compreg Plywood, NFTC, PVC sheets, Recron/PU cushion, feather touch Vinyl cloth, stainless steel lavatory inlays are used to achieve good interior design, best passenger amenities and long life of the coach under tough running conditions.
SPRING MANUFACTURING ICF manufactures its own indigenous springs using hot winding process. Thicker wire or bar stock can be coiled into springs if the metal is heated to make it flexible. Standard industrial coiling machines can handle steel bar up to 75 mm in diameter. The steel is coiled around a mandrel while red hot. Then it is immediately removed from the coiling machine and plunged into oil to cool it quickly and harden it. At this stage, the steel is too brittle to function as a spring, and it must subsequently be tempered. Grinding, shot peening, setting and coating are some finishing processes that are done to after the hardening. These are then sent to the shell division for assembly. Conclusion: The ICF is one of the only two coach manufacturing units in India. It produces coaches indigenously starting right from raw sheet metal to completely furnished coaches in various shops. We observed numerous manufacturing processes like punching,
blanking, forming, forging, rolling, turning and CNC machining. Though India lags behind technologically, ICF imports many of its equipment from all over the world, making it efficient. It is very surprising that even with all the imported automation equipment, it still employs thousands of labourers, which I feel decreases the efficiency of the factory. It was very interesting to witness how the coaches were moved from one shop to the other on movable train tracks. Also the museum that we visited at the end of the industrial visit was an eye opener, where we came to know some very famous personalities who had visited the ICF. The visit taught me that the Indians are also as capable as the Japanese or the Americans when it comes to manufacturing. Though we are technologically lagging behind, we make up for it with sheer manpower!
