The Hindu Business Line : BiSS bags contracts in US market

BANGALORE Integrated System Solutions (BiSS), the country's leading vendor of digitally controlled servo-hydraulic test systems, is consolidating its presence in the sophisticated US market.

As year 2003 drew a close, BiSS engineers installed three servo-hydraulic test control systems at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) of the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA).

The MSFC uses BiSS systems to ensure integrity of its space propulsion systems including cryogenic stages of the Space Shuttle, said Dr R. Sunder, Research Director of the Bangalore-based BiSS.

The company will be soon supplying two units of the BiSS 200 Hz test system to Delphi Automotive Systems, Dr Sunder told Business Line. Such a unit has already been installed in a Mumbai-based facility, making it the country's highest frequency servo-hydraulic system.

A 5 kN BiSS desktop servo-hydraulic test system is operational for fracture mechanics studies at the University of Arkansas Materials Research Facility. Scientists at the Sandia Laboratories at Albuquerque, New Mexico, the US centre for nuclear research, also have commissioned a BiSS engineered system. All these US orders were secured in direct competition with leading domestic companies, Dr Sunder said.

Delphi Automotive Systems and the US Air Force Research Laboratories have formally invited BiSS to bid for their future tendered requirements. "We look forward to working with these technology leaders in the years to come," he added.

Back home, in India, BiSS had added a half a dozen shock absorber test systems to the already existing range. The BiSS team is now working on multi-channel test systems. An 8-actuator, 6-degree of freedom earthquake simulator will be installed at the Civil Engineering Department of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Another multi-channel suspension test rig is being developed for TVS. These new technologies will be available at a fraction of the cost of imports to assist cost-effective development of globally competitive technology, Dr Sunder said.