Most exciting technology interest

Over the years I have been involved with dozens of projects on plastics, rubber, fibres, adhesives, microelectronics.

Someone recently asked me which particular technology I found most exciting.

Undoubtedly it was the subject of extrusion coating.

In extrusuon coating one material in the form of a hot film extruded from a flat long orifice is laid on a moving substrate. The substrate can move at extremely high speeds. Several metres per second.

All the action happens in a fraction of a second.

Using this technique many thousands of products can be prepared, some very simple to highly complex composites.

I first got interested in extrusion coating when I visited the factory of company called Telecon Plastics situated south of London in 1968. 

I read tonnes of articles on the subject and discussed it with many experts. The most interesting discussions with persons who operated these machines. 

When I returned to India in 1969, I found that one of our family concerns, Devon Plastics, had a rather unique machine which was an extrusion coater. It could be used to produce simple plastic film and complex coated products.

With this.machine the face of India was changed in several areas as I teamed up with a brilliant Management Expert, the late Prem Sadanand. 

Based on my practical experience on that machine, I got several consultancy appointments in Vishakapatnam, Hyderabad, Baroda, and other locations around India. 

I worked on several differnet types of machines, and was able to get to know the process, hands on, very intimately. 

Cheap packaging products to complex laminates used by defence and pharmaceuticals were developed.

I was asked to write a “Handbook of Extrusion Coating” by the Rubber and Plastics Research Association of Great  Britain (RAPRA). 

They had been my first employer between 1966 and 1969. 

During my time with them I had over a dozen major publications written and published in the UK. 

I agreed to write the handbook but it was at the time of the Iraq invasion by the US and UK.

I realised that if I wrote that book for the UK Association, I would be colluding with a power which was lying to the world.

I asked to be released from that contract as our principles did not permit me to work with those who told blatant lies, such as the non-existent weapons of mass destruction that Tony Blair said existed in Iraq.

I am glad that I followed our Guiding Principles of never working with liars.

Solution for volcanic ash in airline engines

Although I am retired, and I do not indulge in designing solutions for technical problems, there is a simple solution to  prevent the intake of harmful particulates from the volcanic ash into airline engines.

The solution revolves around a technique we use in plastics extrusion.

To ensure that large particulates do not get to the extrusion die, when the molten plastic is passing from the extrusion chamber into the die manifold, it passes through a screen filtering device. Most screen changers are static. The screen has to be changed periodically when the extrusion quality deteriorates.

There are continuous screen changers. With a slight modification in design, these could be designed to fit to airline engines!

The solution is the design of a continuous screen changer which will filter the ash as it is sucked into the airline engine. As the screen changer moves it could be designed to shows its reverse face at the back of the engine where the ash collected during the intake is blown clean and collected.

Any competent engine designer can rig one of these up in a few days.

It is obvious that the airline industry has to come up with a solution to this problem.

Without doubt, mine is the best possible solution. This will not in any way hamper engine performance but ensure safety from particulates.

Hope that someone takes up this idea and works on it!

It gives me confidence that my days as an innovator have not quite vanished.