Webinar on Maintenance in Pharma Engineering (Audit Course in Maintenance Engineering)

The Department of Mechanical Engineering held its sixth webinar in Audit Course in Maintenance Engineering for the academic year 2020-2021, on July 9, 2021. The session was delivered by Mr. Prasad Adpaikar, Manager Engineering, Sanofi along with Mr. Nagraj Naik, Calibration in-charge, Engineering, Sanofi and Mr. Rupesh Mopatkar, Engineering, Sanofi on “Maintenance in Pharma Engineering”.
The webinar was hosted via Zoom. 55 participants from among the students of the Third year Mechanical Engineering and Faculty from Mechanical Department attended the webinar. The event was hosted and coordinated by Prof. Swapnil Ramani and Prof. Mayur Shetti. The event was initiated by Prof. Swapnil who welcomed the participants and gave a brief introduction about the resource person.
Mr. Prasad started by talking about the different products manufactured by Sanofi and the generalised requirements of the products. He elucidated the criticality of maintaining certain psychrometric conditions in the pharmaceutical processes. He gave a general outline of the manufacturing processes and the machines utilized as well as the auxiliary systems used. He spoke about the different subsystems present in the machines used. Role of Engineers in the pharma industry was highlighted. The job of engineers for equipment purchase, installation, calibration & certifications, and eventual maintenance was also talked about. Mr. Adpaikar explained the different types of maintenance processes (Breakdown, Preventive & Predictive).
Mr. Nagraj spoke about the importance of calibration in the pharma industry. He spoke about the theory, techniques, and terminologies & methodology of calibration. The different standards & machines were covered. Mr. Nagraj stressed the need of calibration, saying that “The true effect of non-calibration comes during failure.”
Mr. Rupesh spoke on the water purification systems used in the pharma industry. He spoke about the different machineries utilized in the processes of water purification. He shared videos to show the principle and working of the systems utilized at Sanofi.
Overall, the talk was very interactive, with students asking questions, displaying curiosity and a willingness to learn more about the topics.