As per industry reports, India is expected to become the world’s 3rd largest construction market by 2022. Furthermore, increasing the development of the National Highways and initiatives like “Smart City Mission” provide attractive opportunities and drives the growth of this sector.

Concrete batching plants have become an essential machinery and we can’t imagine any construction site without it. In the construction industry, producing high quality concrete in the right amount and delivering it on time is a challenging task. The right quality of concrete increases the reliability of any construction and this is being achieved with concrete batching plants.

Have we ever thought what is driving the concrete batching plants to deliver the right quality concrete on time? Yes, it’s compressed air!

Let us understand the concrete batching plant briefly before going into the usage of compressed air in its operation.

A fulfilling childhood enriched with fond memories, impactful lessons, supportive mentors and a chance to dream. That is the endeavor of the ELGi vocational training school in Coimbatore.

ELGi’s programs around creating well-rounded individuals, through meaningful and active community engagement, draws parallels to Nehru’s legacy of education and development for the children of today, both promoting positive social change.

We sat with a few students from the ELGi vocational training school, located in Singarampalayam, on the outskirts of Coimbatore.

These three students from the school have spent three years at the expansive campus. The ELGi vocational school campus is spread across 18,000 sq ft with provisions of multimedia classrooms and a training centre with a fitting shop, machining, welding and electrical work.

ELGi has been focused on ensuring that its products are energy efficient and therefore have minimal impact on the environment, at no additional cost. With a first-of-its kind heat recovery system, ELGi is using 96% of the waste heat generated by air compressors to heat air (space) and water. This in turn eliminates the need for additional equipment to heat water and reduce CO2 emissions.

Apart from this, ELGi has been involved with several projects around the world to help conserve natural resources.

Cleaning Mirror Lake in the US

When the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control in the US wanted to clean the historic Mirror Lake in Dover, they partnered with ELGi air compressors.

ELGi’s Rotair D300K compressors were used to fire carbon pellets to the bottom of the lake to trap contaminants.

ELGi, a 1960 born organization promised to be research intensive, innovative and customer service centric. ROTAIR on the other hand was born right out of the ashes of the second world war in 1945. Starting with design and production of piston compressors in a small unit, ROTAIR soon graduated to small engines. It didn’t take too long for ROTAIR to start distributing all over Europe, especially France, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany.  Early 1970s saw the introduction of rotary vane air compressors with twin-cylinder VM engines. ROTAIR quickly expanded compressor capacities 25 cfm to 300 cfm. The 1970s brought new additions of screw compressors and opened up distribution vistas outside of Europe. The progress didn’t stop there. ROTAIR’s inventiveness saw capacity enhancement to the current 900 cfm. Additionally, ROTAIR is a regulatory compliant ISO 9001:2000 certified organization. The company controls design, production and testing via lean quality management procedures.

Started in a humble way in 1960, ELGi Equipments has today transformed to become the seventh largest compressor manufacturer world over, with business presence in over 70 countries. The company has now set its ambitious goal of becoming the Number Two compressor manufacturer globally in a decade. In the last four years, after the completion and working of its sprawling 2,00,000 sq ft facility at the Kodangipalayam village in Coimbatore, ELGi can proudly claim that the foundation to reach its goal has been well laid.

Anvar Jay Varadaraj, Senior Manager – Marketing & Corporate Communications, elaborates on the company’s approach, “Our mission is to establish the ELGi brand. Today with many companies giving technical details and characteristics of their products, we focus on a content-driven approach. The compressor works in the background, and the challenge is to make the customer understand how important are its reliability, power conservation, etc.”

A Facility of Global Standards

ELGi has two factories in Coimbatore – the 20,000 sqm Singanallur facility for the final assembly line, and the Kodangipalayam facility, which includes the airends plant and the foundry. The young Kodangipalayam facility has technologically advanced imported machine tools to ensure the highest accuracy and quality standards. Recently ELGi has also started developing its own machines-for profile milling, grinding and polishing. This is aimed at bringing down the manufacturing cost without compromise on quality.

To achieve this goal, Air-Alert is industry fitted as well as retrofitted in ELGi air compressors free of cost with SIM-based communication systems that convey operational data like usage, uptime, running hours and more. In addition to this, it also sends analytical data like usage report, health report and a virtual logbook. Furthermore, it provides strategic feedback such as proactive failure alert and energy optimization recommendations. This is made possible by our cutting-edge failure prediction models based on a combination of fundamental science, industry and product experience and a well-researched statistical approach. This data can be easily accessed through our web based PC interface and the smartphone app.

Surprisingly, this material is also used as a calcium additive in animal feed to increase egg production in chickens and milk in cows. Its salt is used as an antacid to treat indigestion, as calcium supplement to strengthen bones and to treat patients with kidney diseases. In a powdered form, it is used in glues, plastics and toothpastes. Remarkably, this versatile material has also been found to be grounding and helps those who have trouble finding clarity and focus.

Springs is an old mining town. Until the 1960s, coal and gold mining dominated the local economy. This fact would have a major impact on the future of the town and pose certain health challenges that’d require modern technology to resolve.

The township of Springs is named after the many natural fountains that were found in the area by the early gold explorers. Here, aquifers or natural underground water bodies are in abundant supply, which means water is plentiful. The problem however, wasn’t with the quantity but the quality of water. The reason for the poor quality of water lay in the industrial past of the place.

Cameron Highlands was discovered in 1885 by a British surveyor, Sir William Cameron. An idiosyncratic feature of British colonial rule was the establishment of hill-stations in tropical countries like India, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Myanmar and Malaysia. Hailing from cooler temperate regions, the British developed these secluded hilly areas as sanatoriums and vacation spots. The natural beauty and pleasant weather reminded expatriates of the English countryside.

A key event in the development of Cameron Highlands was the establishment of the Agricultural Experiment Station in 1925 to examine the feasibility of farming. The next year, a committee was formed to identify areas of the highlands for cultivation, housing and administration. A private firm was awarded a three-year contract to build a road to the plateau. The opening of the road in 1931 led to people moving in and settling on the mountain slopes. Tea plantations were established and vegetables grown. Within a few years, cottages, schools, a dairy, nurseries, a military camp and a golf course came up. The growth continued until Japanese occupation during the Second World War. After Malaysia obtained independence, extensive stretches of forests were cleared for agriculture and development resumed.

In recent times, the demands of tourism in Cameron Highlands have led to uncontrolled farming and deforestation. Highway and hillside development projects continue to be carried out in the undulating terrain, causing slopes to be ‘distressed’ over time. In this rainy region, the destabilisation of slopes increases the chances of landslides tremendously. The problem has plagued the area for several years now, endangering lives and drastically altering the topography of Cameron Highlands.

The Government of Malaysia has been taking steps to mitigate erosion with stabilisation projects underway. Commonly used retaining systems such as concrete walls require inordinate earthwork. Engineers have, therefore, opted to use the technique of soil nailing to strengthen slopes. Soil nailing, as a remedial technique for stabilizing slopes, is said to have been applied first in 1972 in France. It is now used around the world. This method has grown popular because of its ease of implementation and little subsequent maintenance.

The basic concept of soil nailing is to reinforce and strengthen the existing ground by installing closely-spaced steel bars, called ‘nails’, into a slope as construction proceeds from ‘top-down’.This process creates a reinforced section that is stable and able to retain the ground behind it.

ELGi provides compressed air solutions to North Soil Engineering, a Malaysian firm, currently in charge of slope stabilisation projects in Cameron Highlands. Soil nailing employs compressed air to accelerate steel rods or nails into the ground at over 200 mph. A high velocity shock wave is generated ahead of the nails that elastically deforms the soil, which subsequently rebounds and bonds with the nails. North Soil Engineering finds that ELGi’s diesel-powered air compressors meet the demand for faster drilling and ensure higher productivity at a lower per-foot drilling cost. In addition, our air compressors play a pivotal role in grouting and cement blowing procedures.

With a population of over 40,000 and thousands of tourists making their way to Cameron Highlands all year round, this project is critical for preventing landslides, safeguarding lives and keeping the beautiful slopes of the ‘Camerons’ intact.

Sources:

http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft396nb1sf&chunk.id=d0e116&brand=eschol