Dr. Anusha Epparla is working as a Scientist at the Centre for Additive and Special Manufacturing Processes (C-ASMP) at CMTI. Previously, she worked as a Guest Scientist at Fraunhofer IWU Germany and has 9+ years of experience in laser-based manufacturing, handling various industry-oriented application development and research projects. Additive Manufacturing, Materials joining, Application of Lasers in Materials Processing, Surface Engineering, and Technology Transfer & Commercialization are her areas of interest. She has expertise in independently handling high-power industrial laser systems integrated into robotic workstations, process monitoring and analysing tools, statistical, analytical and FEM modelling of laser surfacing processes and acumen to solve complex engineering problems required for process development on actual industrial parts. Dr. Anusha is proficient in materials characterisation, property (mechanical/tribological) evaluation, analysis, and simulation to provide research solutions and handle projects in the laser materials processing field.
- B.E in Mechanical Engineering from Osmania University, Telangana (University Gold Medalist – 2014 Batch)
- PhD in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Warangal (External Candidate) Telangana and worked in the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI) Hyderabad, Government of India in Centre for Laser Processing of Materials (Thesis Title: “Investigation on the Influence of Different Thermal Processing Conditions in Laser Surface Hardening of Bearing Steel and Bearing Elements”)
Dr. Anusha has 9+ years of solid experience in the field employing advanced industrial laser workstations for processes constituting surface engineering, joining and additive manufacturing.
- Guest Scientist at Fraunhofer IWU, Dept. of Thermal Joining Technologies, Germany
Projects:
Process optimization of adaptive laser welding with experimentation and development of appropriate artificial intelligence technique with process simulation, property evaluation and analysis.
Laser based additive manufacturing – laser metal deposition (LMD) of copper on steel utilizing twin-beam laser system
- Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad, India.
Research carried out on influence of cooling rate in Pulsed diode laser welding of IN718 Butt Joints.
- Technical Consultant at AIMTech Global solutions Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad.
Developed a unique process to improve the strength and other properties of cylindrical metallic parts and components for engineering applications.
- Senior Research Fellow at International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad (Govt. R&D Lab)
- Design and development of laser surface hardening process on tapered roller bearing elements, including adoption of novel process setups and validations, entailing significant engineering and life-enhancement advantages compared to conventional industrial practice.
- Developed various laser-based manufacturing processes and industrial projects (hardening, re-melting, alloying, softening, welding, cladding, and additive manufacturing (DED)). These industrial project works required providing appropriate solutions to actual application with implementation of process design, set-up design, generation of production drawings using CAD tools (Solidworks, Autodesk Inventor, CATIA), simulation and programming on actual industrial component (using D-CAM, COMSOL and ANSYS software tools). Further to the fulfilment of project deliverables, extensive characterization, testing, and analysis were carried out per standards to validate the actual life of laser-processed components.
- Developed novel unique laser processing techniques such as quasi-stationary dynamic laser beam high-speed laser surface hardening/re-melting process and proved on tapered roller bearing components.
- Unique laser surface re-engineering process (both hardening and softening) utilising controlled pulsed power programming with specialized fixture-setup with fluid- flowing conduits entailing enhanced heat transfer coefficient during laser surface treatment of thin automotive high strength steel sheets to improve strength and formability,
- Unique design implementation of pulsed laser cladding based DED of nozzle tip baffle plates for nozzle used in boiler.
- Apart from her convergence with various Mechanical/Tribological testing (Tensile, Wear, fatigue, and formability), she was also acquainted with laser micro-machining, welding and additive manufacturing utilising diode, PBF- based and ultrafast laser systems available at ARCI.
Industry-sponsored application development Projects:
- National Engineering Industries Ltd. (NBC Bearings): Design and development of laser surface treatment process on taper roller bearing elements to enhance load bearing capacity and life. (TRL: 7, Patents Granted (Indian): 02)
- GE Aerospace: Development of laser hardening process on gas turbine compressor vanes to improve droplet erosion resistance. (TRL: 5)
- Tata Steel Ltd.:
Development of laser surface treatment process for TMB of auto-body parts. (TRL: 7)
Development of Laser softening process on automotive high strength steels to enhance formability for auto-body components. (TRL: 5)
Government funded R&D Projects:
- NTPC: Technology of laser-clad coated for life improvement of boiler nozzle used in thermal power plants, (TRL: 9)
- IGCAR: Development of Technology of Hardfacing of Fast Breeder Reactor Components by laser surfacing process (TRL: 7)
Inhouse Projects:
Development of laser processing solutions for various applications such as hardening of turbine blade, casting rollers, textile processing wires, dissimilar and similar welding of steels, welding of high temperature materials such as steels and superalloys, coating for nuclear components, welding of special solenoid valves and laser surface processing to develop exotic coatings with metal-matrix composites.
- Anusha, Adepu Kumar, S M Shariff, “Numerical and Statistical Modelling of High Speed Rotating Diode Laser Surface Hardening Process on a Steel Rod”, Optics and laser Technology, Vol. 143, 107309.
- Anusha, Adepu Kumar, S M Shariff, “Finite element analysis and experimental validation of high-speed laser surface hardening process”, The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 115(7), 2403-2421.
- Aqeel Mohd, Gautam JP, Anusha E, and Shariff SM, “High-Power Fiber-coupled Diode Laser Welding of 10-mm Thick Inconel 617 Superalloy”, Journal of Laser Applications, 36, 012008.
- Anusha, Adepu Kumar, S M Shariff, “A novel method of laser surface hardening treatment inducing different thermal processing condition for Thin-sectioned 100Cr6 steel”, Optics and Laser Technology, vol. 125, 106061.
- Anusha, Adepu Kumar, S M Shariff, “Diode laser surface treatment of bearing steel for improved sliding wear performance”, Optik- International Journal for Light and Electron Optics, vol. 206, 163357.
- Anusha, Adepu Kumar, S M Shariff, “Diode Laser Surface Treatment of Bearing Steel for Improved Sliding Wear Performance”, 22nd International Conference on Wear of Materials (WOM), Florida, US.
- Anusha, Adepu Kumar, G. Padmanabham, S M Shariff, “Novel Technique of Controlling Heat Input for Core Retention & Reduction in Distortion in Laser Surface Treatment of Bearing Racer”, Article in Bulletin of ILA, Vol.29, No.3, Pg.35-45.
- Sai Krishna VP, Jitender Kumar Chaurasia, Epparla Anusha, S.M. Shariff, Srikanth Bontha, “Understanding Thermal Behaviour during Laser Surface Melting of SS 316L”, Poster Presentation in Conference: National Metallurgy Day and Annual Technical Meeting of IIM 2018 at Kolkata, India.
- Debjit Misra, Balmukund Dhakar, E. Anusha, S. M. Shariff, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Satyajit Chatterjee, “Evaluation of Nanomechanical and Tribological Properties of Laser Surface Alloyed Boride-Nitride-Carbide Ceramic Matrix Composite Coatings”, Ceramics International, Vol. 44 , Pg.17050-17061.
- E Anusha, S M Shariff, G Padmanabham – Laser based surface engineering for life enhancement of power plant components, Proceedings of International Conference on Surface Engineering, New Delhi, India, pp. 1-15, 2016.
- E Anusha, S M Shariff, G Padmanabham – Investigation on effect of laser pulsing parameters on surface hardening of bearing steel, presented paper at National symposium of Mechanical Engineering and Research Scholars (NSMERS) symposium held at NIT-Warangal, India.
- E Anusha, S M Shariff, G Padmanabham – Diode laser surface treatment of bearing steel for improved mechanical and tribological properties, Poster presented at International conference on Applications of Lasers in Manufacturing, CALM 2015 held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India.
- Successfully completed industry application oriented laser-based manufacturing with prestigious organizations such as NEIL, GE, TSL, DRDO, NTPC: 05 (TRL > 5) and 01 (TRL: 9)
- Awarded Indo-German Science and Technology (IGSTC) prestigious Post-doctoral Industrial Fellowship (PDIF) in 2022.
- Awarded SERB financial grant for attending “International Conference on Wear of Materials, USA (April 2019)”.
- Received best paper award for paper presentation titled “Investigation on effect of laser pulsing parameters on surface hardening of bearing steel”, presented at NSMERS symposium (2016), NIT Warangal, India.
- Awarded ARCI Fellowship as Junior Research Fellow, followed by being promoted to Senior Research Fellow in International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad, in 2015.
- University Gold Medalist from Osmania University, TS, for the academic year (2010-2014) in B.E (Mechanical Engineering)
- Patent No: 202441021099, Filed Indian patent on- A process to improve strength and other properties of cylindrical metallic parts and components for engineering applications.
- Patent No: 202211005404, Filed Indian patent on- Autogenous laser welding system and method for joining thick metallic parts without filler wire feeder.
- Patent No: 201711046511, Granted Indian patent on – A system for treating a surface of bearing components and a process thereof.
- Patent No: 201611034362, Granted Indian patent on- A laser-based surface processing apparatus and a method to process metallic materials and components.
