‘We are committed to offer automated calibration’
Published on : Monday 30-11--0001
What was the rationale of the Calibrations & Inspection Services department at Lawkim? When was it started?
Lawkim was established in 1961 and pioneered the manufacture of hermetic compressor motors in India under technical collaboration with Emerson Electric, USA. The Godrej family acquired the company in 1977 and later got it amalgamated into Godrej and Boyce Mfg Co Ltd in 2008. Today Lawkim Motors is one of the 14 divisions of Godrej, manufacturing specialised hermetic compressor motors, single phase/three phase, components and parts such as wound stator and rotor assemblies and laminations/stampings for different applications.
Seeing the potential growth in the engineering industry, Lawkim began expanding its range of machines and tooling on the shop floor to improve productivity and quality. It also developed its internal ability to begin calibrating all equipment. By the end of the 1990s, it took a decision of creating Calibration & Inspection Services to offer its skills and abilities to the engineering industry. The business has done good work over the years and we have setup four labs mainly in western and southern parts of India to cater to the growing requirements as an independent business vertical.
What are the various services offered for instruments as well as machines?
Godrej-Lawkim Motors, Calibration Lab business is one of the first few ISO/IEC 17025 accredited calibration laboratories (NABL) in India for Mechanical, Electro-Technical and Thermal Parameters since 1996. We have enhanced our scope of offering by adding new facilities mainly in “Precision Instrument Calibration Field” covering Electro-technical including Radio Frequency, Pressure, Thermal, Flow parameters as well we have expanded our line of services and currently catering to some of the best hospitals through our Biomedical calibration wing.
Apart from that, our mechanical calibration laboratory with its precision measuring instruments facilitates dimensional inspection of precision components. And through our Inspection wing – we are calibrating various CNC machine like lathes, drilling machines, etc., which is going to be of great demand in future. We also offer end-to-end solutions in Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) and Welding Technology.
Why should the customer opt for these services?
No company can afford to have its Test & Measuring Instruments providing wrong or incorrect/inaccurate readings during usage, which is why customers from aerospace to automobile, from engineering to pharmaceutical and many other industrial segments prefer to use these services. All ISO companies see this as just not complying to the standards, but a basic quality compliance need to provide value added solutions to their final customers. The services offered are vast, embracing all major industry segments.
What are the various facilities in the lab?
Since 1995 we are serving many companies across various industries like aerospace, automobile, aviation, chemical, defense, energy, engineering, food, fertilizer, healthcare, government and public organisations, mining, metallurgy, pharma, petrochemical, print media, telecom, textile, etc.
Our infrastructure includes the most dependable and up-to-date measuring equipment for different calibration fields. This covers almost 85% calibration needs of the industries with facilities capable of calibrating parameters such as electro-technical including radio frequency; mechanical includes dimension, pressure, mass & volume, force, torque, sound, vibration, speed, density, etc; flow (gas & liquid); thermal including humidity; bio-medical; optical-lux meter, etc.
Is this a single lab serving the whole country or there are multiple locations?
We operate from four locations – Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Vadodara. But with our onsite calibration capability and leveraging of IT technology, we serve to pan India customers. We have spread our wings beyond the domestic market and are offering calibration services in Bangladesh, South Asian and Middle East markets too.
In future considering the growing need of industry, we will be starting our operation in Northern and Eastern part of India soon and based on our existing footprints in some of the above mentioned overseas markets, we are also planning to setup labs in Bangladesh and Middle East with or without partnerships.
Are there any in-situ services provided for heavy machines like lathes and other machine tools or welding equipment?
Yes, the demand for “in-situ calibration” is increasing year on year. Currently our 50% calibrations are in-situ. This way customers can be relaxed as instrument down time in minimal. This eliminates transportation cost, results in added confidence on the measurement data as well as takes care of safety/handling aspects to great extent.
Regarding heavy machine calibration requirement, it is soon going to witness great demand. It will work as catalyst wherein tolerance of product will be assured during manufacturing process. And by way of inspection, rework can be eliminated resulting in saving of money and time by doing things right at first time itself.
We are providing Geometry & Linearity Calibration for heavy machines like lathes, drilling, jig boring, wire Cut/EDM, jig grinding, milling, horizontal/vertical boring machines and VTLs, etc., and are completely ready for future needs. We also provide welding machine calibration services wherein we certify current and voltage accuracy.
In the era of Industry 4.0 and IIoT, what are the changes one can expect in calibration services?
Frankly, very few equipment manufacturers are leveraging IIoT technology for calibration and largely it is applicable for process based instrumentation. Therefore, for majority of calibration services, specifically in Test & Measuring equipment, human intervention is unavoidable due to technology limitation and available configuration/specification of equipment.
We at Lawkim Motors Group are using IoT to transform our system from “Linked Web Application” to “Dynamic Web Application”. This helped us in providing IT enabled end-to-end solution in calibration field.
In future, the field of calibration will witness increase in demand for mobile calibration services and more in-situ jobs wherein customers would receive better and quick service at their doorstep. With our aim to develop end to end solution leveraging IT, we are committed to offer automated calibration, which will save substantial time and will also aid us in building quality in all aspects ensuring 100% error-free certification with minimal human intervention.
What is the scope of training and consultancy services?
There is a definite and huge requirement for Training and Consultancy in the calibration field. Currently 500 plus accredited calibration labs are operational in India and the number is expected to double in next five years. The basic purpose of training/consultancy is to transfer knowledge, develop skills, enhance performance and productivity and have sustainable growth. In fact, the Govt of India has also launched Skill India Mission in order to enhance skill of Indian workforce.
Apart from this, customers too demand this kind of subject specific training covering basic metrology concepts and calibration awareness in line with international requirements.
Lawkim Motors Group – Calibration & Inspection wing – also imparts training which includes “hand-holding” on various topics covering:
- IS/ISO/IEC 17025:2005 awareness
- Metrology & Calibration awareness
- Technical Subject Training for various calibration parameters includes hands on training
- Evaluation of Uncertainty in Measurement, and
- Laboratory Setup and Accreditation Process in line with ISO/IEC 17025:2005.
We operate through a team of experienced and qualified professionals, who are committed to provide customised solutions to our esteemed customers. We have provided consultancy and training services from very small businesses to large organisations.