Field Visit- Ami Cas Composite Structure Ltd.

An industrial visit was organized by Mechanical Engineering Department, Don Bosco college of Engineering on 22 April 2019 for the students opting for FRC (Fiber Reinforced Composite) as their elective subject in Final Year. A total of 14 students were accompanied by Prof Gaurish M Samant for the visit. The visit was aimed at gaining industrial exposure and to let the students have an overview on the activities related to various processes, materials, material handling and safety in manufacturing of Fiber reinforced composite carried out by Ami Cas Composite Structure Ltd, Goa. The company has two units .The first unit manufactures medium to heavy composite parts used for various applications like automobile , marine parts etc. The second unit makes Heavy Duty ships and other high end products for defense application.
The students were shown around by Mr Kasim (Employee) at the Ami Cas Composite Structure Ltd. The unit mainly uses prepregs of Kevlar, Glass and Carbon fibers with core materials like Aramid, Aluminum for manufacturing of the required parts. The making of the parts from the raw material requires a controlled environment in which dust, temperature and humidity is regulated. There are special rooms named as CCA (Climate Controlled Area) and ECA (Environment Controlled Area) a total of 750 m2 , which follow AS9100 rules and regulations. In these rooms, the manufacturing of the parts are carried out. The company plans for upgrading its facilities to meet NADCAP standards soon.
The facility also houses an autoclave (2 m dia, 5 m length) where temperature and pressure are varied according to demand in forming composite parts. This facility has three temperature conditioned rooms where the raw material is stored at -18 to -20 degree Celsius .The temperature conditioning is a necessary requirement for the shelf-life of the raw material, hence a dedicated backup system is installed for providing the emergency energy demands for the same. The access was restricted for the facilities under ITAR (International Tariff Ammunition Regulation).At the FRP unit, we were shown around by Mr Sayedh. This unit makes diverse parts from processes like spray lay-up, hand lay-up, filament winding, etc. The raw materials used were mainly glass fiber fabric, glass fiber spools, chopped fibers as fiber raw material and styrene and epoxy as the matrix raw material. The facility is also equipped with huge vacuum machines for meeting the high scale manufacturing demand. A root card is assigned for each product from the beginning of the manufacturing process till its dispatch which shows all the processes and inspection the product has gone through. The students were also informed about the impact and applications of fiber reinforced composite in aerospace, automobile & shipbuilding industry, its future and career opportunities. The field Visit were organised under the guidance of Prof Ajit Salunke HOD Mechanical Engineering, Don Bosco College of Engineering Fatorda.