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When India’s Mars orbiter mission (MOM) took off from Sriharikota on Tuesday, it was a moment of joy for engineers of Pune based Walchandnagar Industries Ltd (WIL). WIL had manufactured the rocket motor casings and nozzles for the 44.4 meter Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) that carried the spacecraft into the space. Not only the rocket motor casings, but many critical components and hardware, nozzles as well as PS0XL motor cases were manufactured at WIL.
Speaking about this, G K Pillai managing director and chief executive of WIL said, "Many critical key components, nozzles and hardware PS0XL motor cases have been manufactured and supplied by Walchandnagar and which are part of the PSLV used in the successful launch. The casings supplied for 'Mangalyaan' are very critical as they have to withstand extreme heat and pressure which the PSLV generates at the time of take off. The casings take 8 to 10 months to manufacture. "
He added, "WIL is associated with ISRO for over four decades since the inception, Walchandnagar Industries first developed rocket motor casings and nozzles for ISRO’s first Satellite Launch Vehicle program (SLV3) Rohini in 1973. Since then, WIL has been continuously partnering with ISRO for development of advanced versions of satellite launch vehicles successfully launched by India, such as Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV), Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Geo Centric Satellite Launch Vehicle. Most of Isro's PSLV missions have motor casings manufactured by WIL."
WIL has created a separate aerospace business division with dedicated facilities and infrastructure to cover all aspects including design, engineering and manufacture and quality assurance and critical tests of equipment for the space sector. This has about 150 workmen, 50 engineers and world-class manufacturing and testing facilities. Earlier, many core components for India’s first mission to moon Chandrayaan and nuclear Submarine INS Arihant.
