INDUSTRIAL VISIT TO VOLKSWAGEN INDIA PVT. LTD.

Monday, 19th October 2016, Pune: Students of Third Year B. Tech.

Production Engineering went to Volkswagen India Pvt. Ltd. and a Sheet Metal Die
Manufacturing factory, both in Chakan area, Pune.
Prof. P. M. Ravanan and Prof. Balaji Paikrao from the Production Department and
Prof. Shilpa and Prof. Pallavi accompanied with 44 students in the industrial visit.
First visit was at Volkswagen from 10 am to 12 pm, where the students were
introduced about the company in an introductory video and focusing on their
tagline "only Volkswagen can create a Volkswagen." It was followed by a 50minute factory walk where the head of communications Mr. Chaitanya Halbe
explained about various processes such as Roller Hanging Process, ChassisMarriage process. 65% of the plant was operated by automatic robotic system.
KUKA robots were one of the prominent types of robots present there. They were
imported from Germany. The processes like Spot Welding was done
automatically. The quality of the car was one of the main components of
manufacturing. Safety material at prominent accident affected areas was
reinforced so that the person sitting inside the car would be safe in case of
accident. Volkswagen is a parent company to many other car manufacturers
such as Audi, Skoda, etc.
In the second half, the students visited the sheet metal die manufacturing
factory owned by Mr. Sudhir Belgamwar, a 1988 alumnus of VJTI Production
Engineering. He himself along with the 2 partners gave a walkthrough to the
factory. Initially the die comes in raw casted form from the metal casting
process. The Machining is further carried out according to the die dimensions,
finishing with the help of boring tool, special purpose milling cutter with cutting
edge along the length of the tool was used to machine big components.
Attachments were fitted for making provisions for holes in the sheet metal. After
the drawing dimensions met the required tolerances, the next stage was testing
of the die. The two halves of the die were mounted on the testing machine
where actual flat metal sheets of 0.2 to 0.8 mm thickness were used as raw
material and then the output produced was then analyzed with the true drawing
of the required output. If any defects were found, then the die was sent for
rework and then passed for final inspection. They had clients like Tata Motors,
General Motors and a majority of automobile companies. The car doors, for
example were made by their dies. Each new variant of a car needs a different
die to meet the different design requirements.
The visit to Pune helped the students to understand concepts of Machine
Design, Tool Design better. The students recommended to organize more visits

and have tie UPS with the industries to get exposed to modern machinery like
CNC Milling, Laser Welding, etc.
- Revant Buch
Class Representative, TY BTech Production Class of 2018