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Suresh D Nair

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Engineer of the Year Award for RA Armstrong

 

The SAE India Foundation has chosen RA Armstrong from TAFE – R&D Team, for the Engineer of the Year Award 2019-20. The award was presented to him by Dr. Richard Greaves, Past President, SAE International, on February 10, 2020 at New Delhi, in recognition of his outstanding achievement as Automotive Engineering Professional and his contributions towards organizing various competitions and other activities for students that have helped in the overall development of engineering academia, for SAE India and SAE SIS for over a decade.

 All of us at TAFE congratulate Mr. Armstrong on receiving the award and take pride in his remarkable achievement!

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S Sriraman, Sr VP-R&D honored

Mr. S Sriraman, Senior Vice President – R&D, was honoured with Engineering Excellence Award 2018, by Chennai Institute of Technology, at the Institute premises at Kundrathur. during Engineers Day on 15th September 2018. Institute honoured Mr Sriraman for his contribution to the Engineering excellence in the technology growth and transformation of the Society.

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 News | Events

AEA & SAE Club Inauguration at MIT

Mr S Sriraman, Senior Vice President – R&D, inaugurated Automobile Engineering Association (AEA) and SAE India (Society of Automotive Engineers India) Collegiate Club at Madras Institute of Technology (MIT), Campus for the year 2018-2019. This will enable them organise SAE affilated Knowledge Round Table (KRT) in their campus.

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Mr. P Nageshwar Rao speaks at the Agricultural Innovation Conference and Exhibition held at HAU, UK
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Mr. P Nageshwar Rao speaks at the Agricultural Innovation Conference and Exhibition held at HAU, UK

TAFE entered into collaboration with Harper Adams in June 2018 to develop advanced technological, agronomic and educational solutions for the delivery of sustainable food production around the world.

Recently, the National Centre for Precision Farming (NCPF) at Harper Adams University successfully hosted its first Agricultural Innovation Conference and Exhibition on July 03, 2018.

The event which was sponsored by AHDB and supported by Agri-Tech West, started with a keynote speech from LEAF Chief Executive Caroline Drummond MBE. She said: “In terms of where innovation is going in agriculture, it’s exciting times.”

Mr. P Nageshwar Rao from TAFE R&D was amongst the speakers for the event. He shared TAFE’s history and the situation in India and said: “Precision farming in India is still in a nascent stage; unique challenges will require tailored solutions in this market.

“We believe by 2025, in India, adaptation of technologies like imaging, FMS, mobile apps, autonomous in agriculture space to be at par with global standards.

With regards to hearing about HFH, Mr. P Nageshwar Rao added: “When I heard about a tractor without a driver, I said this is where we need to jump to join hands together.”

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TAFE sponsors SAEISS Tractor Design Competition - 2018
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TAFE and SAEISS inspire young minds to design tractors

Nurturing young minds is an essential part of TAFE’s journey of Cultivating the World. With the significant increase in the tractor industry’s growth, it is evident that farm mechanization is a key factor in the success of our country’s agricultural sector. Encouraging the youth of the country to take more interest in farming and empowering them with knowledge on the industry is essential to accelerate this growth.

SAE INDIA Southern Section (SAEISS) has been organizing a Tractor Design Competition (TDC) since October 2016 for the undergraduate engineering students of India. The competition was launched by SAEISS in the presence of Mr. Cuneyt Oge, SAE International and gives engineering students an opportunity to understand the customer requirements, design, build and test various tractor models, including a 17 hp tractor. The engineering students have to design, manufacture, assemble, and prove their tractors before a team of technical experts.

This year, the SAEISS Tractor Design Competition was sponsored by TAFE, and Simpsons, and engineers from both TAFE and Simpsons conducted three workshops on the various aspects of tractor design. Each team submitted their design report which was evaluated by the chief judges Mr. C. Varadarajan and Mr. S. Nakkeran. The judges visited the colleges of the 22 registered teams in March 2018 for a preliminary inspection and gave feedback which significantly helped the teams enhance their tractor designs.

The finals of the competition was hosted by SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST) at their Kattangulatur campus, Chennai from 21st to 23rd June, 2018. The competition included design report presentation, and technical inspection of the tractor for both safety and performance. Out of the 22 registered teams, 16 teams demonstrated their tractors in maneuverability and durability tracks. The team from Government College of Technology, Coimbatore was the overall champion and SAEISS TDC – 2019 was launched during the valedictory function.

This tractor design competition is a first of its kind in Asia with a primary objective to encourage interest in the design of tractor and to improve students’ employability. In addition to building technical competencies, student engineers learn to prepare business cases for the project, behavioral competencies like communication, team work and leadership skills.

Tractor Design Competition 2018 was inaugurated by Mr. S. Sriraman, Chairman, SAEISS and Senior Vice President (R&D), TAFE on June 21, 2018. He appreciated the hard work put in by students and their faculty advisors to reach the finals and told students to make use of the opportunity to discuss various aspects of design with the Industry experts during the course of this event. Dr. D. Kingsly Jeba Singh, Dean, School of Mechanical Engineering., SRMIST, and Mr. P. S. Rajamani, Whole Time Director, Simpsons, Chennai also attended the event as guests.

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Venkateswaran K, Elango. R, Bhagwat Nagalwade, from TAFE R&D COE participated and presented a technical paper in the Fluid Power Technical Seminar (FPTS)
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TAFE R&D presents paper on enhanced new product development

Fluid Power Society of India conducted the Fluid Power Technical Seminar (FPTS) in Bangalore on June 19 and 20, 2018. Venkateswaran K, Elango. R, Bhagwat Nagalwade, from TAFE R&D COE participated and presented a technical paper in the seminar.

The paper presented was titled “Methodology Adapted in Hydraulic System Simulation to Enhance New Product Development” was well received by the audience and committee members, and awarded a certificate and shield for the paper.

This paper focuses mainly on simulation driven product development as one of the methods to reduce lead time for concept creation, concept optimization and to reduce the product development cost. It is detailed into three major categories:

1) Overview of model based system engineering in product development

2) Simulation methodology demonstration of a hydraulic system through AMESim software, and

3) Challenges faced by OEM

This paper presents the methods used in modeling of a tractor hydraulic system with assumptions and meeting the performance requirements. It elaborates the modeling of each sub system and validation of subsystem. The paper also explains the identification of critical factors, sensitivity study and Design of Experiments (DoE) on performance parameters and its ability to size for the given product specification through simulation.

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Taking the tractor to the masses

TAFE has always prided itself in being a learning organization. It has always been at the forefront of fostering learning; be it the ‘Product Training Centre’ – first of its kind in the tractor industry, instituted by Mr. A Sivasailam in 1963, to train all dealer and company employees who deal with TAFE customers, or the TAFE e-University that has revolutionized learning at the work place for all TAFE employees.

Apart from the learning that is imparted within the organization, TAFE regularly works with organizations like SAE India and CII reaching out to the next generation of students. Recently, in a lecture – ‘Trend of Transmission for Tractors’, conducted by SAE Southern Section – Chennai Division, Mr. T R Karthikeyan, Deputy Chief Engineer – R&D addressed a gathering of college students from engineering colleges in and around Chennai at AIEMA, Chennai.

Mr. T R Karthikeyan during his talk spoke about different transmissions like, Manual/Straight Shift, Synchronized Shift, Semi-Automatic, Continuously Variable and Hydrostatic, found in various tractor brands in India. He explained in detail how each system worked with the aid of videos. It was a deeply insightful interaction that helped the participants understand the in-depth workings of a tractor transmission.

In another SAEISS event, Mr. S Sriraman, Senior Vice President – R&D, TAFE and Chairman of SAEISS spoke to the participants of the Fifth Lecture Meeting jointly-organized by SAEISS Erode Division and Collegiate Club on ‘Tractors for Modern Farming’. Held at Vellalar College of Engineering and Technology, Erode, Mr. Sriraman enlightened the delegates with a broad outlook on the trends in the Indian agriculture sector and its various developments. He spoke of TAFE’s active role in improving farming practices.

We congratulate the R&D team and wish them the very best for their future endeavors.

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S. Ravikant - Principal Member, presented a paper titled "Prospects of IoT on Tractors – Farming solutions"
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TAFE’s R&D is ‘Future Ready with IIoT’

The Fluid Power Society of India (FPSI), established in 1973 is a body that promotes fluid power knowledge and technology. TAFE participated in a recently conducted seminar by FPSI on the topic “Future Ready with IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) – applications in Fluid Power”. Part of TAFE’s R&D Hydraulics team, Mr. S. Ravikant – Principal Member, presented a paper titled “Prospects of IoT on Tractors – Farming solutions” at this seminar. He spoke about the importance of IIoT with regards to tractors and how it is revolutionizing the tractor and its capabilities.

He was accompanied by Mr. R. Elango – Senior Member and Mr. V. Vijayakumar – Member from Hydraulics Team. The seminar was well attended by engineers from component manufacturers and end users interacting with fluid power. The seminar also featured focused sessions on “Fundamentals of IIoT”, “IIoT application for Fluid Power Components” and “IIoT application by Fluid Power End Users”.

Congratulations to the Hydraulics team for its continuous efforts in learning and development in their journey of ‘Cultivating the World’.

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The participating school students at the Tractor Design Competition
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TAFE’s R&D – Cultivating the World beyond

Research and Development (R&D) departments are in essence dynamic, constantly looking out for new, advanced, and efficient ways to do things. This holds true especially for the people at Tractors and Farm Equipment’s (TAFE) R&D department who are not only responsible for engineering excellence into TAFE’s products, but are ‘Cultivating the World’ with their knowledge and expertise.

Beyond their work at TAFE, some members of the R&D department actively engage with the engineering community at large. Mr. S. Sriraman – Senior Vice President, R&D and Mr. A. Armstrong – Functional Head, Engine Team, R&D part of the management committee SAEISS were part of the official launch of AWIM (A World in Motion) 2016 at B. S. Abdur Rahman University, Chennai. Mr. Cuneyt L. Oge, SAE International President, was present at the launch of this Jet Toy competition.

AWIM as a Jet Toy competition was envisioned with a view to inculcate design thinking among the students. The enthusiastic participation of the university students and faculty made the program a grand success. In another SAEISS event at Veltech University, Mr. S. Sriraman and Mr. A. Armstrong along with Mr. Cuneyt L. Oge launched a Tractor Design Competition.

In yet another event, Mr. G. Senthilkumar – Principal Member, R&D, inaugurated the Association of Automobile Engineers along with Mr. Rathish Mallar at S. V. College of Engineering, Sriperumbadur. During the event, Mr. G. Senthilkumar also made a presentation titled “Field to table – Green Revolution” to a discerning audience.

Kudos to the TAFE R&D team for truly ‘Cultivating the World’.

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TAFE's Suresh Rao from R&D conferred the INAE Young Engineers Award 2016
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TAFE’s Suresh Rao conferred the INAE Young Engineers Award

Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited’s (TAFE) Suresh Rao from the Research and Development (R&D) department was conferred the 2016 INAE Young Engineer National Award by the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE). Suresh’s dedicated contribution to the field of Engineering earned him this award. At the award function held at the Space Application Centre (ISRO), Ahmedabad, he was awarded a Certificate and prize money of INR One Lakh. The gathering included prominent personalities from the field of Engineering.

A part of TAFE – R&D since 2004, Suresh Rao is a B. E. graduate from Sairam Engineering College and holds an M. Tech from IIT Madras. His B.E. project was awarded the ISTE Engineering Design National Award, and his M. Tech project fetched him the IIT Madras best project award. He has also excelled academically scoring the highest CGPA in both years at IIT Madras, winning the Academic Excellence Award.

Congratulations to Suresh Rao for such an admirable achievement. We wish him the very best for the future and hope he scales higher summits and reaches greater heights.

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