BHPV-The Lost Opportunities

There were many opportunities for BHPV to become a giant organisation but because the top management was timid and lacked imagination we let go of those opportunities. At least I know of three opportunities which would have catapulted BHPV to big league.
Let me narrate the first opportunity.
In early 1980's I was a member of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)design review team. Almost every month I used to go to ISRO at Trivandrum to participate in the design review. The review committee consisted of eminent people from design,materials,fabrication, testing etc. My job was to review welding and non-destructive testing procedures.
Rocket motor casing is nothing but a pressure vessel subjected to very high pressures. The entire design philosophy is to make the rocket shell as thin as possible but still meeting the safety and structural stability requirements. There were two teams who were designing the casing. It was understood that which ever team comes out with the best design in terms of least weight of the rocket meeting all structural stability requirements will be admitted. To give an idea of the intense competition between the teams, one team adopted the weld efficiency as 1.1 and another team adopted the weld efficiency as 1.08. At first glance this difference appears to be small. But this made a significant difference in the weight of the rocket motor casing. If one were to adopt weld efficiency of 1.08 one has to adopt a stringent welding procedure and an advanced method of detecting weld defects. The crack size was specified by the fracture considerations. My additional assignment was to find out the method of detecting the crack and if necessary specify an instrument measure the crack. The design review used to go from morning to evening and continued even during dinner time. it was the most stimulating experience i had.
I met several authorities in various fields and this experience was humbling.

During one of such meetings the Project Director of PSLV who knew me well called me aside and gave a bundle of drawings and told me that they were the preliminary drawings of PSLV and told me that he wanted BHPV to examine the drawings and give there consent for fabrication of Rocket Motor Casings. He also told that they want BHPV has to set up exclusive facilities for the manufacture and ISRO will completely fund the facilities. ISRO wanted air conditioned clean room facility, automatic TIG welding machines, assembling jigs, online testing facilities etc. which will also be funded by ISRO.ISRO wanted a guarantee that these facilities will not be used for any other jobs. I was excited for identifying BHPV for such a prestigious job. I told him that I will do my best to convince top management to accept the challenge.

What was the reaction of BHPV's management's reaction for this proposal will be the subject of next blog.