About Spring Factory - North Central Railways

Rail Spring Karkhana is Located near Sithouli Railway

Station about 12.8 KM away from Gwalior Railway
Station. It is a unique workshop designed for manufacture
of Hot Coil Helical Springs of various types for use on
various types of Rolling Stock (Engine and coaches) over
entire Indian Railways. This unit was sanctioned & set-up
well before formation of North Central Railway as an
independent Railway Zone.
The Foundation Stone was laid by Hon’able Member of
Parliament Shri Madhav Rao Scindia. This is the largest
dedicated Plant for manufacture of Helical Hot Coiled
Springs for use on Indian Railways.
 It was setup in 1989 on turnkey
basis by M/s Ernst Komrowski &
Co. Germany in the Technical
Collaboration with M/s Grueber, a
Leading Spring Manufacturer of
Germany.
The total sanctioned cost for setting-up of the project
was Rs 54.04 Crores. The plant is now equipped with
state-of-the art facilities for manufacture of Coiled
Springs. All furnaces of this Plant are LPG fired. Trial
Production of springs was started in the month of
February’1990 and the Karkhana was formally
inaugurated by Hon’able Railway Minister Shri George
Fernandez on 25th april 1990 in the presence of Shri M.
Rao Scindia.
Central Railway was bifurcated into North Central
Railway in the year 1996-97 which was formally
operated as an Independent Railway Zone in the year
2003-04. Shri IPS Anand took over as the first General
Manager of NCR as an Independent Railway Zone. Shri
Devraj was the first Chief Mechanical Engineer of
Independent North Central Railway.
The Plant was later-on modernized with the latest
facilities for manufacture of FIAT Bogie Springs of LHB
Coaches.In Rail Spring Karkhana sithouli, average
outturn up to Dec’14 is 8995 springs per month against
the target of 8084 springs. Production of springs has
increased by about 5.6% over previous year.
 BRIEF OVERVIEW
The spring factory, sithouli Gwalior, has three divisions
named as Section- A, B and C respectively. First of all, solid
cylindrical bars are transported to Section- A via trucks.
Then these bars are put into the End Tapering machine to
get both of their ends tapered. After cooling for some time,
these end tapered bars are transported to Section- B for
coiling with the help of Coiling Machine. In Section B, there
occur series of four processes which are Bar Heating,
Coiling, Quenching; Tempering. In the end of all these four
processes, Brinell Hardness number of the formed springs
are measured.
Finally, formed springs are then submitted to Section - C,
where the springs are properly oiled and painted and then
they are shipped to the desired location.
 SECTION - ‛A’
END TAPERING MACHINE:-
End tapering machine is used for tapering ends of various
circular bar.
Tapering is important to provide the support seat to the
helical coiled spring after it is manufactured. It basically
consists of a burner fuelled by LPG (or biogas) but in
sithouli spring karkhana, LPG fuelled burners are used.
Temperature is raised to 890-950 degree Celsius for first
heating the ends of circular bars and then they are
individually fed to a cam type Hot Roller which tapers the
ends of these bars. After that, these end-tapered bars are
stored for some time and then they are carried to Section
‘B’ where further processes occur. Recuperative Type
burners are used in End Tapering Machine.
Recuperative Burners and their specialities :
RECUPERATIVE BURNER:- A single-ended recuperative (SER) burner is a
type of gas burner used in high-temperature industrial furnaces. These
burners are used where indirect heating is required means where the
products of combustion are not allowed to combine with
the atmosphere of the furnace. The typical design is a tubular (pipe)
shape with convoluted pathways on the interior, closed on the other end.

The hot exhaust can be

used to pre-heat the
incoming combustion air
and fuel gas to boost
efficiency. This pre-heating
is responsible for no black
smoke from the chimneys
because due to pre-heat,
the air-fuel gas burns
completely.
 GAS TRAIN
Gas train is useful for
supplying and controlling
pre-mixed Air-
Fuel (fuel is LPG) mixture.
Gas trains are completely
assembled with various
components and factory
tested for proper working.
They mainly consist of the
following:
(1) Main Isolating valve (Butterfly valve is used) at inlet: for controlling
the flow of LPG at inlet.

(2) Gas filter for filtering.

(3) Safety Release valve, to protect components provided after the gas
regulator from high pressure in case of gas regulator failure.
(4) Gas regulator (Governor): To provide a constant predetermined pressure at
burner inlet.
(5) Gas safety cut-off valve: To release gas pressure (if higher than
necessary) at the time of starting the system.

(6) Gas pressure switch: To cut off the burner in case of low
pressure.

(7) Safety Release Valves: Two valves are provided in series as a

safety against gas leakage in the system during shutdown period.
These valves can be direct operating solenoid valves or butterfly
valves with pneumatic actuators depending on the quantity of
gas to be handled.

(8) Pilot Gas Train: This consists of isolating valve, pilot regulator
and a valve for generating pilot flame which will ignite the main
flame.
 GAS GOVERNOR
The function of the Gas Governor is to regulate the pressure and
keep Air/fuel (here fuel is Gas) ratio constant. It can reduce the input
pressure of the gas to a desired value at its output.
If the load flow decreases, then the regulator flow must decrease as
well. If the load flow increases, then the regulator flow must increase
in order to keep the controlled pressure from decreasing due to a
shortage of gas in the pressure system.
A pressure regulator includes a restricting element, a loading element,
and a measuring element:
(i) The restricting element is a valve that can provide a variable
restriction to the flow, such as a butterfly valve, poppet valve etc.
(ii) The loading element is a part that can apply the needed force to the
restricting element. This loading can be provided by a weight, a spring,
a piston actuator, or the diaphragm actuator in combination with a
spring.
(iii) The measuring element functions to determine when the inlet flow
 BUTTERFLY VALVE
A rod passes through the disc to an actuator
on the outside of the valve. Rotating
the actuator (or lever) turns the disc either
parallel or perpendicular to the flow. Unlike
a ball valve, the disc is always present
within the flow, so it induces a pressure
drop, even when open.
A butterfly valve is from a family of valves
called quarter-turn valves. In operation, the
valve is fully open or closed when the disc is
rotated a quarter turn.

The term "butterfly" is given to a metallic disc mounted on a rod.

When the valve is closed, the disc is turned in such a way that it
completely blocks off the passageway. When the valve is fully open,
the disc is rotated a quarter turn in such a way that it allows an
almost unrestricted passage of the fluid.
 FUEL : LIQUEFIED PETROLEUM GAS ( LPG )
Liquefied petroleum gas or liquid petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas) is
flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases (propane, butane) used as fuel
in heating appliances, cooking equipment and vehicles.LPG is prepared
by refining petroleum or "wet" natural gas, and is almost entirely derived
from fossil fuel sources.It burns relatively cleanly with no soot and very
few sulphur emissions. As it is a gas, it does not pose ground or water
pollution hazards, but it can cause air pollution.
Stoichiometric Ratio:- The burning of fuel is basically the reaction of fuel
with oxygen present in the air. The amount of oxygen present in a
cylinder is limiting factor for the amount of fuel that can be burnt. If
there is too much fuel present, not all the fuel will be burnt & there will
remain an unburnt fuel.
Therefore, for complete combustion of fuel, it is necessary to know the
air-fuel ratio at which exactly all the available oxygen is used to burn the
entire fuel completely (or atleast to the maximum extent). This ratio is
called Stoichiometric Air-Fuel Ratio. Air to fuel Ratio for LPG used in this
factory is 23:1.
 SECTION ‛B’
The machines available for various processes are: Bar Heating Furnace,
Coiling Machine, Quenching Machine, Tempering Furnace.

Bar Heating Furnace:- The aim is to heat up the bar up to necessary

temperature for coiling.
Procedure: (1) Shift the end tapered bars from Section A to Section B with
the help of EOT crane and then put them all over the furnace magazine.
(2) Start the furnace.
(3) Increase the temperature of the furnace gradually as 400°C, 600°C,
800°C and finally 950°C.
(4) Keep checking the LPG pressure time to time.
(5) Load the bars into the furnace after reaching the temperature of 850
degree Celsius.
(6) If, anyhow, machine does not function properly for a time span of 30
minutes then reduce the temperature of furnace to 800 degree Celsius.
Coiling Machine:- The aim is to manufacture Helical coil spring.
Procedure: (1) Check cooling water, air pressure and oil level.
(2) Set the machine according to requirements. Set correct
mandrel, guide roller and computer program.
(3) Firstly, the coiling machine will run idle to check the whole
sequence. First 4 times, run the machine dry and check the
machine settings.
(4) Give 4 trial runs to the machine & check whether the spring
is being manufactured accurately or not.
(5) At the time of coiling, Temperature of the end tapered bar
will be 890-940 degree Celsius.
(6) The end of tapered bar will be coiled in correct direction
with the help of guide, manually.
(7) The pitch of the spring should remain same throughout the
length.
Similarly, Oil Quenching operation is performed at a temperature
of 40-70℃ for 16 minutes to uniformly hardened the spring. In this
order, the next operation performed is Tempering in Tempering
furnace. The aim is to reduce the hardness so as to enhance the
toughness(ability to resist shock) and ductility to the required
value by heating the springs. The temperature range within the
Tempering Furnace is 350-450℃ and the springs are put within it
for 90-120 mins. Finally, these springs are shifted to End Grinding
Machine where ends of springs are ground.

ONE OTHER IMPORTANT MACHINE WHICH ARE WIDELY USED IN

THE SPRING FACTORY:
CRANE:-A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with
a hoist rope, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used
both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It is
mainly used for lifting heavy things and transporting them to other
places.
OverHead Cranes and Gantry Cranes
Courtsey & Credits
beatonindustrial.com
circuitdigest.com
circuitglobe.com
combustion.in
electricaleasy.com
indiamart.com
indianrailways.gov.in
nptel.ac.in
quora.com
researchgate.net
tameson.com
thegreenbook.com
wikipedia.org
youtube -TechTrixInfo

*Note:- All the above Websites are arranged alphabetically.

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