India's Kineco Secures Contracts to Manufacture Two Carbon Fiber Sonar Domes

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On November 9, Indian composites manufacturer Kineco Limited announced that it has been awarded contracts to manufacture two carbon fiber sonar domes for India's defense sector, with a project launch ceremony held at the defense manufacturing facility in Pilerne, Goa. These two units are described by the company as India's first indigenously manufactured carbon fiber sonar domes. The design was undertaken by the Pune-based Research & Development Establishment (Engineers) under the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), and the domes will house sonar arrays developed by the organisation's Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL) in Kochi.

The project involves two carbon fiber composite structural components for naval vessels. Sonar domes are installed on the exterior of a ship's sonar equipment and serve to protect the sonar array. They must withstand the hydrodynamic loads generated by vessel motion and the effects of the marine environment while ensuring effective transmission of acoustic signals, avoiding significant interference with sonar detection performance caused by the structural material.

Compared with traditional metal structures, fiber-reinforced composites offer resistance to seawater corrosion, high specific strength, and flexible structural design. Carbon fiber-reinforced composites provide high stiffness and strength, but when used for sonar domes, acoustic transmission performance, ply layup design, and structural stability under actual sea conditions must also be taken into account.

The design was carried out by DRDO's R&DE(E) in Pune, while the sonar array was developed by NPOL in Kochi. The two research institutions were responsible for the dome structural design and the sonar system development respectively, with Kineco responsible for manufacturing the composite components, forming a collaborative relationship between research design and industrial manufacturing.

Kineco has previously collaborated with DRDO on naval composites. India's first glass fiber-reinforced polymer sonar domes, jointly developed by the two parties, were publicly showcased in 2016. The product underwent acoustic and structural verification as well as shipborne sea trials, and subsequently entered service on Indian Navy vessels. The carbon fiber dome project represents a new round of technology development building on the existing glass fiber composite manufacturing collaboration.