Rajnath Singh inaugurates transducer production facility

Bengaluru: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, on Friday, inaugurated (through videoconference) transducer production facility established at Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL) here, and oxygen concentrators manufactured by BEL under the PM Cares initiative, at a ceremony organised as part of the 75th Independence Day celebrations (Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav).

Anandi Ramalingam, officiating CMD, directors and other senior officers of BEL and the Ministry of Defence were present on the occasion.

Transducer production facility has been set up at a cost of Rs 30 crore. This is a very large in-house facility catering to the production and testing of a wide range of transducers and underwater equipment. The transducer test facilities include Pressure Test Facility, Acoustic Test Facility and Load Test Facility. It is well equipped with precision equipment to control quality and technical specifications at various stages, like precision jigs and fixtures for stacking of piezo-ceramics, measuring and tuning of the transducer element / hydrophones, Post Vulcanisation Bonding machines, etc.

The facility is expected to generate an annual turnover of Rs.75-80 crore in the initial years and up to the tune of Rs 200 crore by 2026. Transducer is a part of the naval equipment, which BEL has been manufacturing and supplying for four decades.

BEL is manufacturing 30,000 5LPM and 10LPM oxygen concentrators for ONGC with indigenous technology from BPL Medical under the PM Cares initiative.

An oxygen concentrator works by filtering and concentrating oxygen molecules from the ambient air to provide patients with 90% to 95% pure oxygen. The BEL-made Oxygen concentrator, with dual flow output, is used for therapeutic requirements of patients with heart problems, respiratory diseases, brain fatigue, athletics fatigue or plateau hypoxia. The oxygen concentrator is meant to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and also to be used for oxygen scarcity management and providing an industrial eco system for medical devices.

The BEL oxygen concentrator, which will be delivered in 4-5 months', is expected to generate a turnover of Rs. 184 Crores for BEL in 2021-22.