Technology Upgradation and Skill Development Company (Tusdec) has planned to set up "Design Assistance Facility" (DAF) for providing reverse engineering services for agriculture machinery/implements in Southern Punjab.
Tusdec Chief Executive Officer Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhry told Business Recorder that the facility that would be set up at a cost of Rs 59.54 million in Multan would produce standard drawings and CAD/CAM models and analyse the designs for the selected implements within specified timelines with the help of CMM and designing software. A dedicated team of design engineers would be engaged in that regard, he added.
"The direct beneficiaries will be the manufacturers of agriculture implements and ginning machinery. Improvement in their design and production quality would give the local manufacturers an edge in international markets alongside available of sophisticated machinery to the local agriculture stakeholders. The project will be able to service 1,192 samples during the first three years of its operation," he said.
Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhry said that Tusdec had carried out an assessment study in which it was analyzed that SMEs involved in agriculture implements and ginning machinery in Southern Punjab were facing issues of low quality production, lack of knowledge about designs, materials, quality, standardisation, relevant technology and production.
"Multan is a major commercial and industrial centre of Southern Punjab. A large number of SMEs in Multan including textile spinning, textile weaving (mill sector), towel industry, vegetable ghee & cooking oil, wool scouring and woolen textile spinning /weaving, agricultural implements, auto parts, beverage, bakery products, chemical, chip/straw board, cold storage, cotton ginning & pressing, cotton waste, doubling of yarn, fruit juices, foundry products, pesticides & insecticides, packages, poultry feed, rice mills, sizing of yarn, solvent oil extraction, soap & detergent, tannery and textile processing are directly or indirectly related to the agriculture sector," he added.
He said the standardisation of agricultural implements is a part of the project that aims at various objectives including; reverse engineering through scanning of complex parts, development of standardised 2D and 3D engineering designs of agri-implements, standardisation of parts and sub-assemblies, development of assembly and sub assembly drawings, development of proper bill of quantity (BoQ) required for each agri-implement, development of inspection jigs and fixtures to ensure conformance to the design specifications of implements, development of computer aided engineering (CAE) data ie stress analysis reports & fit function testing reports, ease of design optimisation of agri implements according to local soil conditions and overall uplift of the agricultural implements manufacturing sector, he maintained.
Tusdec chief said the project would help the local manufacturers produce high quality agricultural implements. "Improvement in design and production quality would give the local manufacturers an edge in international markets hence significant increase in exports. The standardised designs will be made available to the private sector manufacturers of the farm machines and implements. SME based manufacturers can make use of facilities available at tools, dies and moulds (TDM) centres. The significance of the standardisation activity in pervading mechanization is vital as this will ensure product compatibility, end-user ease of use and continuous design/quality improvement in the products," he added.
He said the introduction of farm mechanization and proliferation of efficient, well designed agricultural implements was one such step to bootstrap an agricultural system primarily comprising of small and medium sized farms. He said the mechanization made timely completion of farm operations possible and it straightaway increases work out-put per unit time. Besides its paramount contribution to the cropping and diversification of agriculture, mechanization also enables efficient utilisation of inputs such as seeds, fertilisers and irrigation water.
Tusdec CEO said the agriculture implements which were already being manufactured in the country, especially those in the conventional SME clusters, needed to be standardised after consultation with the experts from relevant fields. "Standardising that refers to complete engineering design including computer aided design (CAD) based drawings, models and specifications for materials will play a pivotal role in large scale manufacturing and continuous quality/design improvement of the indigenous makes," he maintained.
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