Magnetic and Electrotechnical Testing & Calibration

  • Established Magnetic Primary Standard Lab for the first time in India, 1998 at International Level: Dr. Kotnala established a laboratory for primary standards for 10 magnetic measurement parameters in the preview of ISO:17025 for International Bureau of Weights & Measure, (BIPM) France. He also established an advanced state-of-the-art R&D lab, on “Multiferroic, Spintronics & Magnetics Standard” at NPL.
  • Industrial Support for Magnetic Materials, Measurements and Power Loss in Electrical Steel used as core material for Transformer IEC 404-2.
  • Analysis and suggesting the method for brittleness in Ferrite E-Core for M/s. Cosmo Ferrites Ltd., New Delhi; September, 1994.
  • Pilot compass test platform & setting up of Helmholtz coil at IGI Airport, New Delhi for M/s. Indian Airlines Ltd., 1997.
  • DC Magnetic Field Mapping of the deflection yokes used in colour picture tubes for M/s. Samtel Colour Ltd., Ghaziabad; 1996.
  • Suggested a method for magnetic Crack Detection ITL Ltd., Mathura Road, Faridabad, June, 1996.
  • Evaluation of remedial measures for plant producing amorphous foils of electrical steel to reduce noise levels generation when used as a transformer core M/S Vijay Electricals Ltd. (~ 5000 crore turnover), Hyderabad, June 2008.
  • Contributed to establishing for the first time Indian Reference Standards: i) Made in India (PM5 sampler), Indian reference materials BND, ii) Breath Alcohol Analyzer iii) Basmati Rice Reference BND.  iv) Environment Pollutants, water, gas and Biomedical Calibration & Standards.
  • Planned & Guided Protection of Human Health & Environment from Microwave Radiation.  EMI/EMC Test Facility in EQDC, Gandhi Nagar Gujarat, for protection of human health and environment from EMI & magnetic radiation emission test from electronic equipment & automobiles 2009-12.
  • Gold Certified Reference Material (CRM): Indian Reference Material, known as Bharatiya Nirdeshak Dravya (BND), is a high purity gold primary calibration standard for Jewellers. Dr Kotnala and his team developed and certified first Indian standard on high purity (99.99%) gold with India Govt. Mint and BARC in 2016. It will reduce cheating with gold buyers which was needed for a long time.
  • Pristine Air Monitoring Station– Dr. Kotnala and his team created the national Pristine Air Monitoring station at Palampur to precisely measure air pollution for the first time in India. Data from this station is providing a baseline for Air Quality parameters to understand air pollutants in the cities more precisely. It was accomplished on March 29, 2017.
  • Coal Certified Reference Material (CRM) Standard Established in 2016: Use of Certified Reference Materials (CRM) for coal chemical properties is very essential for comparability and traceability of analytical results, calibration of instruments, method validation. For the first time, a coal standard (BND) in India was provided by Dr. Kotnala’s team in collaboration with CIMFR Dhanbad.
  • Magnetic Device Development for Seed treating by NPL & IARI –Magneto-Priming:   A device for magnetically treating seeds prior to planting so as to increase the yield of plants grown from the seeds was developed. Magnetopriming is a non-invasive dry seed priming technique that doesn’t require the seed to undergo the hydration and dehydration cycle. Collaborative work with IARI, Pusa showed interesting preliminary results of about 25 % – 35 % increase in the yield for tomato, cucumber & 14 % for paddy.
  • Quality-system developed for industries: In addition to industrial metrology facilities, consultancy service is also rendered to big industrial houses & PSUs for solving magnetic materials & measurements associated complex problems as a Lead Assessor of NABL for ISO: 17025 certifications.
  • Geomagnetism: Established earth’s magnetic field measurement facility using single axis and tri-axial fluxgate magnetometers with a range: 100 µT-1000 µT, and uncertainty of 10 -4. After establishing a precision magnetic measurement lab at NPL, Dr. Kotnala established different methods of magnetic measurements at the international level with high precision. This unique facility has proven big support to Indian industries and the trade sector for globally acceptable world-class standards on magnetism. It has also led to precise geomagnetism and solid earth magnetism experimentations, conceived by Dr. Kotnala. His contributions have been recognized by electing him a fellow IGU, the MRSI medal award, and the NPL team award. His scientific contributions have been very well acclaimed internationally in magnetic materials R & D, innovative sensor development in related areas, and precision magnetic measurements. It is proven by publishing research papers in high-impact journals, US patents (please see the list of publications), and inviting him as a technical program member (a rare honor) for an international conference on precision electromagnetic measurements CPEM 2010, S.Korea.
  • Geomagnetism Experiment on Solar Eclipse Day: Experiments on Variations in Geomagnetism were conducted on Solar Eclipse Day, July 22, 2009 at National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, India. This experiment was covered in the three Delhi Newspapers on July 23 and Aug 1, 2009. In this experiment, geomagnetism variations were recorded simultaneously by three different fluxgate magnetometers with higher accuracy than in the earlier experiment performed. On July 22, 2009, the day of the solar eclipse experiments were conducted from 6.00 a.m. to 10.00 a.m. in the open field of the National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi. The experiment recorded different components of Earth’s magnetic field using a high precision fluxgate magnetometer. It was observed that both the vertical component (V) and the total magnetic field intensity (F) remained depressed by about 100 nT on the day of the eclipse compared to the other normal solar days. However, no appreciable change could be detected in the horizontal component (H) of the earth’s magnetic field. The total uncertainty in the measurement of variation in the vertical component of the earth’s magnetic field was ±1 nT. This data is of paramount interest to telecommunication engineers, Geophysical Scientists, and atmospheric science researchers. This kind of measurement also attracted a lot of attention from common people that illusions & myths associated with solar eclipses are a false notion. Such measurements are very useful for navigation purposes, ionosphere communication for electromagnetic waves, earthquake predictions, etc. This was the only crucial scientific experiment carried out in Delhi on Geomagnetism and Dr. Kotnala was invited to Taiwan for a data comparison on the solar eclipse. Some magnetic measurements on minerals have also been carried out.