Tell us when and how Everest group came into existence?

Everest Transmission came into existence in 1980. We started manufacturing twin lobe rotary air blowers. Popularity known as roots blowers. In 1994-95, there was a ban on importing nuclear products, including vacuum duty machines, in India. At that time, we had been approached by Dr Bavankar, director. Center of Advanced Technology (CAT) Ministry of Atomic Energy, Indore. He advised us to develop and manufacturer vacuum boosters. This is where we started our research in vacuum boosters and subsequently started manufacturing too. We worked with CAT and IITS. It helped us learn a lot as we were exposed to the latest equipments and technologies, competitive advices, and intelligent interactions. This was our first experiment with vacuum products and we realized that there is a tremendous scope in this area. Over the years, the company expanded its technological base, bringing a wide range of products.

There was a challenge of competitive manufacturing cost – offering good quality products at lower cost. We understood that cost cutting doesn’t mean reducing labour or raw material. It’s more to do with your manufacturing processes and technology used. We studied our manufacturing processes thoroughly and managed to reduce the process time by one-third. We invested in advanced technology and equipment, and also cut down on wastage. Today, Everest is ISO 9001:2000 certified.

How did you develop the market for the vacuum boosters, since the product was totally new at that time?

It took us a lot of time to develop the market for vacuum boosters. Not only the product, but the technology was also new. We first approached the big companies which had teams of experts and technocrats to understand the technology and its benefits. It worked as very well as compared to smaller companies. These case studies helped us get more customers. We know that performance of the OEM’s design ultimately dependability of its components. That’s why so many manufacturers of water treatment plants, effluent treatment plants, cement plants, aquaculture farms, chemical plants, electroplating plants, paper plants, vacuum plants and systems and pneumatic conveying systems have entrusted their reputation upon Everest. Our board product line of air blowers, water-cooled blowers, gas blowers, vacuum booster pumps, acoustic hoods and enclosures consists of standard and custom models that fall into major product groups.

Can you explain the working principle of twin lobe rotary air blowers? What are the applications?

Twin lobe rotary air blowers belong to the category of positive displacement blowers. They consist of a pair of lobes, rotating inside a properly shaped casing, closed at ends by side plates. The drive lobe is connected to the driven lobe, through a pair of gears and they always rotate in opposite directions. As the rotors rotate, the air is in the intet side of the cylinder and forced out to the outlet side against the system pressure. With each revolution, four such volumes are displaced. The air, which is forced out, is not allowed to comeback due to small internal clearance within the internals of the machine except a very small amount called ‘slip’. There is no change in the volume of air within the machine but it merely displaces the air from suction end to the discharge end, against the discharge system resistance. Since the lobes run within the casing with finite clearances, no internal lubrication is required. The air thus delivered is 100 cent oil-free. These blowers delivered, practically, a constant flow rate independent of the discharge pressure conditions. To illustrate further, let us consider a case when a discharge of a blower is connected to the bottom of a tank, with water to a depth of ‘H’ mm. The air discharge out of the blower accumulates in the discharge line until sufficient pressure is built slightly over ‘H’ mm of WGI, when it starts to escape out. The system resistance or the static load on the blower is thus ‘H’ mm of WG. The power consumed by the blower depends upon the flow rate and the total pressure head on the blower. A blower is capable of resisting high pressures. But because of the mechanical limitations arising due to increased power intake, temperature rises and increase in the slip restrict the working pressure head to about 7000 mm WG for air cooled blowers and 10,000 mm WG for water cooled blowers in single stage operation. The blowers are generally selected for the maximum system pressure, which could be encountered during operation. The prime mover is selected accordingly.

When in operation, the blower offers a considerable power saving since the power consumed by it depends upon the actual working pressure under which it operates and not the rated pressure. Consider a case when an Everest twin lobe rotary air blower is selected for an application requiring a capacity of ‘Q’ m3/hr at ‘H’ mm of WG at which the power is specified as ‘P’ kw. Under the rated condition it would consume ‘P’ kw, but if the system back pressure falls from the rated/design value, the blower automatically starts working under lesser head and power requirement falls accordingly, oil concept has got a lot of importance. However, the conventional recycling process is not very environment-friendly. This made us think of an alternative method. We started our research on it. Finally, in consultation with Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), we developed a new environment-friendly waste oil recycling process with practically zero effluents. This process eventually became a benchmark criteria to get the license from CPCB.

Similarly, we developed a few more processes by using our expertise and equipment we invested in. Although it took a lot of time and energy, the end results were quite satisfactory. We got the customers like Ranbaxy. Arbindo, Pharma, Cadilla, etc.

The latest of these was our work with NIOT (National Institute of Ocean Technology, Government of India. For the first time, they have developed a process called low thermal desalination to convert sea water into drinking water. The cost of production of drinking water from sea water with this process is just 60 paisa per liter.

Will you elaborate on this technology? What is Everest’s contribution in this?

The project is the first of its kind in the world. Although the technology is new, it’s quite simple. The temperature gradient of sea water is very effectively used in this process. Normally, the top of the sea is at about 30 oc and as you go down, the temperature reduces. At 200 meter depth the temperature about 12 oc. This temperature difference is used to boil the water and condense it. The first plant of NIOT was set up at Kavarati, the capital of Lakshadweep, an year ago. This plant produces water of one lakh liters per day at just three paisa per liter. The quality of water is absolutely of WHO standard. The second plant is coming up in Tamil Nadu which is of floating type in the sea. This has the capacity of one billion liter per day. NIOT is working on the patent for this and already a lot of international companies have shown interest in buying this technology. The vacuum pumping system which is the heart of the whole equipment is developed by Everest. The field of vacuum technology is not much developed in India. Everest is the most successful player in this field, thanks to our extensive focus on R&D.

What are the challenges you face today?

Getting and retaining the right manpower is the biggest challenge we face today. It’s worrying factor for every manufacturing company. The other challenges like increased raw material cost, competition, global competitiveness can be overcome with the use of new methods and technologies. But we have not yet found any effective solution for the manpower problem.