HAL to make cryogenic engines for ISRO

Isro will provide Rs 139 cr for setting up the facility, which will be built at HAL's campus in Bengaluru

The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is setting up a facility to manufacture cryogenic engines for ISRO’s heavy light rockets in Bengaluru.

ISRO will provide Rs 139 crore for setting up the facility and it will be built at the HAL campus in Bengaluru with HAL’s personnel manning it once its ready. Meanwhile, ISRO will provide Rs 139 crore for the facility.

“Our plan is to establish the Integrated Cryogenic Engine Manufacturing (ICEM) facility in the next two years,” said HAL Chairman, R K Tyagi.

“Our plan is to establish the ICEM facility in the next two years,” added Tyagi. Speaking on  the occasion, Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) K Radhakrishnan said: “We remember HAL every time we succeed in our missions, the Mars Orbiter Mission being the latest. We have been partners in progress and will continue to be so in future too.”

A cryogenic rocket engine is a rocket engine that uses a cryogenic fuel or oxidizer (or both) liquefied and stored at very low temperatures.These engines were one of the main factors of Nasa’s success in reaching the moon by the Saturn V rocket.

India has been working for many years on developing a cryogenic engine.

The major facilities planned at this upcoming ICEM unit include rotary vacuum brazing facility, machinery for sheet metal forming, CNC machines (mainly five axis) for complex geometry machining, tungsten inert gas/metal inert gas welding, the heat treatment facilities for special materials and testing facilities. The facility is expected to have a turnover nearly Rs 9 crore per annum.