Moscow Power Engineering Institute

I was selected by Government of India in 1968 on a USSR scholarship to do my Ph.D in Moscow. After reaching Moscow I was admitted to Moscow Power Engineering Institute.

Moscow Power Engineering Institute was set up in in 1930 to solve technological problems associated with power generation, distribution, control etc. The Institute was so huge that in 1970's the student strength was around 24000. The institute was training students from undergraduate level to post graduate level including Ph.D's and D.Sc's. There are 70 Departments in MPEI, 550 laboratories for students and more than 100 research laboratories. More than 500 Ph.D students out of which 100 foreign students are studying at any given moment. The faculty consists of over 1700 professors, assistants professors and lecturers. Many of the professors are Academicians.Selection to Undergraduate programme was similar to our IIT entrance exams. Very tough and students from all over USSR wrote the exams. If the students are not selected they used to cry their heart out. The admission to Postgraduation depended upon the performance in the Undergraduate programme and the the desire of the Professor to accept a Graduate student. All Postgraduate student got a scholarship of old 200 Roubles. In addition students are allowed to coach undergraduate students for which they were paid another 100 Roubles per month.

My Professor was Alexander Nikiolaevich Olshanskii.
All welding processes are based on heating the metal to be joined to its melting temperature and prevent the molten metal from contamination by oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere. For example, in manual metal arc welding, heat is generated by striking an arc between the base metal and the stick electrode. To prevent contamination the stick electrode is coated with chemicals which produce enough gas such as carbon di oxide, carbonmonoxide and other reducing gases. In addition a slag is deposited to blanket the molten metal to prevent contamination from atmospheric air. Some times alloying elements are added in the coating to improve the mechanical properties of the weld metal. Similarly in TIG welding and MIG welding Argon is used to shield the molten metal. The whole idea of using the gas is to displace the Air in the vicinity of weld. Thus whatever may be the heat source it is essential to ensure that weld metal is not contaminated by the atmospheric air.
There is another method of preventing contaminatin of the weld metal-by creating vacuum around the place where welding is going on.When you evacuate the place where welding is going on you have eliminated all gases from the vicinity of the weld. The part to be welded is kept in a chamber which is evacuated and welding is done as usual. This was in 1960's.When Prof. Olshanskii proposed this new process his peers laughed at him and asked him whether he plans to go to space to carry out welding. But undaunted he worked out the process of welding in vacuum for which he got his Ds.c. He had the last laugh when soviet astronauts did weld in space and brought back welded specimens for evaluation.
After successfully establishing welding in vacuum he conceived a new process of Electron Beam Welding about which I will write in the next blog.