Factory Training

 Industry Training ( II & III year in MIT)

As mentioned earlier, as part of the curriculum, six months of industrial training was part of the course syllabus.  Out of that  I underwent 6 weeks of training at Calcutta at the end of the first year. During my II & III year at MIT  I seized the opportunity to undertake that training in established manufacturing locations. Somehow by that time itself, my taste was towards  the petroleum & petrochemical complex and my luck favoured me. I had my training in 

      1) FACT ,Alwaye  

      2) Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Neyveli

      3) Madras Refinery Ltd, Manali, Chennai   

Let me share my learnings at each place.

During my II year first semester vacation I had the opportunity to undergo my training at FACT,Alwaye. That plant is located at the outskirts of Cochin city in a place called Alwaye, run by Kerala government under cooperative scheme. That plant is manufacturing   Ammonia & Urea  from raw naphtha drawn from Cochin refinery. There we were 6 classmates who undertook training  and we were lucky enough to have Mr P R Srinivasan, DMIT 5th batch  as our supervisor and guide. At that time he was the HOD of Instrumentation in that complex. As a matter of principle he devised  a training schedule especially for the students coming from MIT & ensured that it has to be adopted as well as followed by each and everyone. During our training we had the opportunity to understand the routine maintenance inspection procedure as we were taken around the plant areas by their experienced technicians. In those days, as that was the transition state- mechanical to pneumatic systems, not much modern instruments existed there. But the technicians going around the plant areas  to monitor + change/ placing a new circular chart for the parameters like flow& pressure measurements was  a sight to see ! As students since we could not see these actual instruments in MIT class rooms, we felt it was great.

But more than the training, the labour union issues  at that plant were more challenging.  The union secretary was one Mr Sivaraman, an electrician by trade. The prevailing atmosphere was- if Sivaraman blew a whistle, even their MD Sh M K K Nair had to come out of his cabin  to listen to the union demands and settle. We did witness some such scenarios.  

As for the stay, we took rooms in Hotel Woodlands, Kalamassery.  That hotel was falling on the highway between Cochin & Thrissur and  a few kilometers from the plant site. That hotel was famous for accommodating  bachelor engineers and trainees that come to FACT. Bus journey between Kalamassery to the plant site & back was an experience by itself.    

Next, during the II year end i.e after the completion of IV semester in MIT, a few of our classmates had the opportunity to undergo training at Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Neyveli. This complex rather a big town by itself had the lignite mining, fertilizer complex  and a large power generation facility.   There we reported for training to Mr Raghavachari. He was the HOD Instrumentation in NLC. Here it is important to mention that  Mr Raghavachari  was the HOD-Instrument Technology in MIT before moving to Neyveli. So he was well aware of the MIT syllabus and the requirements of training for Instrumentation engineer trainees.   In Neyveli we were deputed to the fertilizer complex and the power generation facilities. To our fortune, at all places there were senior DMITs  who were volunteering to guide and demonstrate the juniors in all aspects of the plant instrumentation. They used to explain the concept of the open and closed loops and their functional objectives. They did demonstrate the importance of periodic calibration for the field instruments using Wallace & Tiernan standard gauge, mercury manometers, Dead weight testers etc. Muffled furnace for the temperature sensors like thermocouple/RTD etc.  

These seniors' presence  and involvement benefited us much.

During my III year first semester holidays, a few of my batchmates had the opportunity to take training in that time upcoming Madras Refinery project  at Manali, Chennai. That was the first project executed by M/S Engineers India ltd under the guidance of M/S Bechtel Ltd. a world renowned project execution consultant especially in hydrocarbon refining. As that was in the project implementation state, we had the advantage in witnessing the multicore cable pulling,underground multi tube pulling, cable termination, copper tubing end connection, check-outs in marshalling racks, panel termination in various control rooms, calibration checks and loop checks etc.

Mr Nambirayan , Mr Srinivasan & Mr Ramasubramaniam (another senior DMIT) were the personnel who guided us throughout that training period at MRL.  

After completing my final semester at MIT ( VI th semester at the end of the third year) to keep myself actively engaged  I undertook some training in a small firm Viz. M/S Venus Moulders at T Nagar itself. They were carrying out PVC material based injection moulding modules for large end users. This company was involved in developing design drawings for the moulds as well as  fabricating finished modules using injection moulds. This I was carrying out until I moved to M/S Malco, Mettur Dam - my first job assignment in Oct. 1969.