GOC – A Key Component in Oxygen Plant
Published on : Monday 12-07-2021
Mitsubishi Electric Indias GOC plays a key role in capacity development of medical oxygen, says Dinesh Mulay.
As India battled the second deadly wave of Covid-19 pandemic in May 2021, the need for medical oxygen and cylinders skyrocketed since the demand outstripped supply leading to a shortage of medical oxygen throughout the country. The situation was countered together by the government and corporates as well who played a big role in normalising the situation by solving the production and supply chain issues. However, local capacity development remains a challenge that is now being looked after by everyone.
Oxygen is produced in huge volumes in industries like Metallurgy, Refineries, etc. However, the biggest challenge in our country during Covid-19 was the supply chain, since these facilities were mostly located in ore-rich States like Jharkhand, Orissa, and States which have big refineries like Gujarat. Transporting liquid oxygen which has its technicalities of safety made the whole situation more challenging. Hence, we saw all our armed forces and railways lending a helping hand too.
There are huge steps being taken by both government and non-government hospitals across the country for capacity development to produce medical grade oxygen locally in limited quantities so that they can become self-sustainable in such situations and even if there is an emergency, the lead time is good enough to plan and support.
How GOC is supporting the capacity development of Medical Oxygen?
The Graphic Operation Control or GOC is one of the key components in an Oxygen plant that ensures that the Oxygen plants run optimally. Air contains 21% Oxygen, 78% Nitrogen, 0.9% Argon, and 0.1% other trace gases. An Oxygen Generator separates this oxygen from Compressed Air through a unique process called Pressure Swing Adsorption. (PSA).
The GOC plays a key role to control the air compressor and maintain pressure in PSA, which are lifelines of any Oxygen plant.
GOC, which is designed, developed, and manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric India’s Factory Automation and Industrial Division, addresses the typical needs of the customers, and meets the optimal automation needs of the market. The company has ramped-up its production, supply and support so that we can cater to requirements for this critical application during these challenging times.
How we are doing our bit to address the challenges posed by the pandemic
Mitsubishi Electric India has already strengthened its safety measures at the Pune manufacturing facility, while closely adhering to the advisory issued by the Central and State Governments and guided by the sole objective of securing the health and safety of all our stakeholders.
Additionally, Mitsubishi Electric’s Factory Automation team is contributing towards India’s fight against Covid-19. Its factory staff and several groups have come together to create a library of basic programs, function blocks and servo set-ups as sample programs, that can be used, copied, or adapted to help make a functioning control system for a “disposable face mask” production machine, the number one tool to tackle Covid-19 infection spread. The application package is derived from its ready-to-use iQ Monozukuri Face Mask package. It compliments very well with e-F@ctory – a smart manufacturing solution from Mitsubishi Electric.
The pandemic has accelerated the need for smart manufacturing, and we are supporting it by bringing together methods for higher productivity and quality, and ideas for easier system configuration, thereby giving optimal solutions for each process, application, and machine.
Mitsubishi Electric India stands with the country in its fight to tackle and beat the Covid-19 outbreak.
Dinesh Mulay, Sr. Manager – Product Marketing, an Electronic Engineer with DBM & MBA from Pune University, joined the erstwhile Messung Systems (now Mitsubishi Electric) in 1998 as a Sales Engineer and has a working experience of 25 years+ in the field of industrial automation.
Dinesh has worked in the capacity of Branch Manager up to 2011. During this period, he has brought consistent business growth while closely working with various key OEMs, end-customers from Automotive, Textiles, Printing Utility sector. After 2011, he has worked on assignments for developing global business for locally developed Factory Automation products. In his present profile, he is working in the product marketing department as Product Head for Compact PLC, HMIs, and locally manufactured FA products. He has been operational in developing HMI for 21CFR Pharma applications, IPC for Pharma, Automotive sector. His rich experience in automation has helped MEI to achieve a leading position for Micro PLC sales in India.