Amity School of Engineering and Technology, Amity University Gwalior organized an Industrial visit under Institution's Innovation Council Activities at M/s Econ Antri Ltd. Antri P.O, Gwalior-475001, Madhya Pradesh, India on 26th April 2022 from 09:30 AM to 4:00 PM
Sleeper Factory at Antri is a private venture run by M/s Econ Antri Limited. It is situated about 20 km away from Gwalior on Gwalior- Jhansi road and near Antri railway station. The company is manufacturing concrete sleepers mainly for the Indian Railway. Some other industries like cement plants and thermal power plants also need sleepers for railway tracks within their premises. The total output per day is about 300 sleepers which can be raised to double by running two shifts when the demand is high. All manufacturing process from collection of material, batching, mixing, placing, casting curing and testing is strictly governed by standards and specifications prescribed by Indian Railway. The plant is a semi-automatic type fully controlled by computers. It also has a well-equipped laboratory.
Activities performed during the visit
The concrete sleepers are being manufactured by using pre-stressed cement concrete of M55 grade and 3 mm-3 ply MS wire reinforcement. Pre-stressing is done by applying tension through hydraulic jacks at different pressures as per the requirement of the sleepers. One bench has four moulds at a time with oiled inner faces and inserts fixed for the fastening of rails. The wires are inserted into holes and pre-tensioned by hydraulic jacks. Then the concrete is filled into the moulds and the benches are sent for curing. First, they are cured by hot steam at a temperature of 750 Celsius for 12 hours. Thereafter, they are cured in water tanks continuously for 14 days. The testing to destruction is performed batch-wise in a separate digitized flexural testing machine.
There are other testing equipment installed in the plant laboratory-like Slump cone, Aggregate impact test apparatus, Sieve shakers, Losangeles abrasion test apparatus, Flexural testing machine, Proctor mould, and Cube vibrating machine, Compression testing machine, Oven and different gauges etc. Most of the tests are computerized and their record is maintained digitally.
The outcome of the visit
The concrete sleepers are being manufactured by using pre-stressed cement concrete of M55 grade and 3 mm-3 ply MS wire reinforcement. Pre-stressing is done by applying tension through hydraulic jacks at different pressures as per the requirement of the sleepers. One bench has four moulds at a time with oiled inner faces and inserts fixed for the fastening of rails. The wires are inserted into holes and pre-tensioned by hydraulic jacks. Then the concrete is filled into the moulds and the benches are sent for curing. First, they are cured by hot steam at a temperature of 750 Celsius for 12 hours. Thereafter, they are cured in water tanks continuously for 14 days. The testing to destruction is performed batch-wise in a separate digitized flexural testing machine.
There are other testing equipment installed in the plant laboratory-like Slump cone, Aggregate impact test apparatus, Sieve shakers, Losangeles abrasion test apparatus, Flexural testing machine, Proctor mould, and Cube vibrating machine, Compression testing machine, Oven and different gauges etc. Most of the tests are computerized and their record is maintained digitally.
Acknowledgement
The students were happy and very excited during the visit. They got satisfactory answers to their questions from the plant engineers and staff. A courteous high tea was also offered after the visit. The visit was very well managed by the company and its staff; by Mr. Govind Singh, Mrs. Mega Garg, and Mr. Sukheer Singh Production Manager in particular. Interactions between our institute, students and the industry people may also be beneficial for further training and placement of our students.
The department of Civil Engineering expresses its gratitude to M/S Econ Antri Ltd.
We are thankful to the Administration Dept. of AUMP for allowing the visit and also to the construction in charge for providing the required information at the site.