Paresh Haribhakti
Managing Director, TCR Advanced; Chief Metallurgist and Global Technical Consultant to the TCR Group, TCR Advanced Engineering.
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Overview
Mr. Paresh Haribhakti is MD of TCR Advanced Engineering Pvt. Ltd., Vadodara, India (a TCR Engineering Services partner company) and the Global Technical Consultant to TCR group of companies. With over two decades of experience in the field of metallography and microstructure examination Mr Haribhakti has solved more than 10,000 industrial problems.
He is pioneer in promoting in situ-metallography as an acceptable and reliable technique for process plant monitoring and components in the industries.
Profile
Paresh Haribhakti co-founded TCR Advanced Engineering Pvt. Ltd. with V.K. Bafna and has led it as Managing Director since 1999, a bench that now runs to 190 engineers and consultants. He is a B.E. in Metallurgy and an M.E. in Materials Technology from M.S. University, Vadodara. Over thirty years he has solved more than 10,000 industrial problems, and he is the pioneer who established in-situ metallography as a reliable technique for process-plant health monitoring in India. Before TCR Advanced he spent nine years as a troubleshooting metallurgist on failure investigation and remaining life assessment at Gujarat State Fertilisers and Chemicals. TCR Advanced completed twenty-five years in 2024, recorded in the silver jubilee release of 9 December 2024.
His working experience is in failure investigation, remaining life assessment and fitness-for-service across power, fertiliser, chemical and petrochemical plants. He has solved materials engineering problems and performed failure analysis on components from petrochemical plants, oil and gas transmission pipelines, offshore structures, ships, pharmaceutical plants, food processing equipment, gas turbine engines and weldments.
In corrosion he was a principal team member on the high-temperature electrochemistry study that selected borated stainless steel for thermonuclear reactors, a project led by France with an eight-country consortium. He has closed out critical corrosion problems across the chemical and petrochemical industries, and the root causes he identifies include microbiologically influenced corrosion, selective leaching, sulphide stress corrosion cracking, hydrogen embrittlement and polythionic acid stress corrosion cracking.
He has specific experience in welding, heat treatment and materials technology for oil and gas drilling and production, including production tubing, casing and downhole motor failures. He was lead member of the failure investigation team consulting to Reliance Industries at Jamnagar, Asia’s largest refinery, for damage assessment after the fire in the VGO-HT2 plant. He has provided damage assessment of the hydrocracker reactors at Baiji refinery in Iraq, and has cleared second-hand equipment for purchase from Taiwan on a health-assessment basis.
He is skilled in the use of scanning electron microscopy in support of failure analysis and fracture identification, and undertakes optical metallography and the interpretation of microstructures, remaining life assessment, heat treatment solutions and the study of microstructural degradation under high temperature and high pressure. He has done extensive research into the hydrogen embrittlement of steels and stainless steels.
The range of metallic components he has investigated runs from cast iron, engineering steels, aluminium and copper alloys through stainless steels and nickel-base alloys to titanium, on offshore, marine, refinery and automotive equipment: turbine blades, compressors, gearboxes, motors, pumps, rotors, shafts, valves, pipework, fasteners, boilers, pressure vessels, plain and rolling bearings, gears, pistons, spark plugs, crankshafts, camshafts and engine valves.
His method is to investigate the available physical evidence and perform the tests needed to establish the most probable failure scenario, then to state it plainly. He simplifies complex engineering theory into usable concepts, using analogies and everyday examples so that a client, a corporate executive, a government official or a lawyer can follow the data and the finding.
His innovation record carries patents. Research-oriented creativeness spearheaded the development of the Microstructure Characterizer (MiC), a powerful image-analysis software for metallurgical use, now used in research laboratories worldwide including National Oilwell Varco and Boeing in the United States, and he is currently extending it into artificial-intelligence-driven microstructure interpretation. He developed a well-respected chemical-composition mapping method for identifying dilution in the weld zone, performs colour metallography to widen what a microstructure can be read for, and developed custom electrolytic polishing for carbon and alloy steels. He developed and patented the robotic crawler behind ARTiS, the reformer-tube ultrasonic inspection system, and the IOT-enabled in-situ metallographic replica system marketed as INSIPOL-2000, and he led the team that built the AiOM cloud platform on API RP 580 and API RP 581 risk-based-inspection principles.
As lead consultant he has signed the group’s highest-stakes integrity work. The fitness-for-service assessment of a hydrogen isomerisation reactor for an oil-and-gas major, run to API 579-1/ASME FFS-1, returned a direct cost saving of more than 15 million US dollars. He has directed remaining-life and fitness-for-service work on high-pressure high-temperature components at QAFCO in Qatar, the Omega-method furnace-tube remaining-life study for Saudi Aramco, failure-investigation and remaining-life programmes for SABIC in the Kingdom, reformer-tube and gasket failure investigation at OMIFCO in Oman, and reformer-tube life assessment with ARTiS at Pemex in Mexico and at Notore Chemical Industries Plc in Nigeria. The full health assessment of a hydrogen plant relocated from England to Valia in Gujarat for Godrej Industries, and the Incoloy 800H ammonia-header repair-weld solution at Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals, sit in the same record.
He is the co-author of “Failure Investigation of Boiler Tubes: A Comprehensive Approach”, published by ASM International, and of the chapter “Failure of Boilers and Related Equipment” in ASM Handbook Volume 11A. He is a founder member of the Metallography Society of India and an active member of the Institution of Engineers, the Institute of Indian Foundrymen, the Indian Institute of Metals and the Indian Institute of Welding. The Indian Institute of Metals, Baroda Chapter, conferred the IIM-KK Award on him in 2016 for outstanding and meritorious contribution to the metallurgical profession in Gujarat. He is an invited speaker across the Saudi Aramco inspection and corrosion forums, the NACE and AMPP Middle East corrosion conferences, the ASNT Middle East NDT conferences, the SABIC technical meetings and ASM International events, is the principal expert at Evolve by TCR, and sits on the board of TCR Arabia.
PUBLICATIONS
- Book on “Failure Investigation of Boiler Tube - A comprehensive approach” 2019 | ASM International
- Chapter on “Failures of Boilers and Related Equipment” 2021 | ASM Failure Investigation Handbook, Volume 11A
- Article on “Optimizing Tube Life” 2019 | World Fertiliser Magazine
- Published article on “Knowledge Based Life Management of Boilers” 2018 | SteamTech-2018
- Paper given on “Preventive Approach for Failure Free Boilers” 2016 | SteamTech-2016
- Presentation and Paper on “An Integrated Approach for RLA of Reformer Tubes by NDT (ARTis)” 2014 | APCNDT 2013 Session: NDT for Life Assessment
- Paper on “Boiler Tube Failure, Root Cause Investigation & Mitigation: Case Studies” 2014 | SteamTech-2014
- Paper on “Corrosion Failures in Water-Wall Tubes” 2014 | Corcon-2014
- Paper on “Material Testing and Characterisation” 2014 | ASM International
- Paper on “Fitness For Service: Using NDT & Inspection” 2013 | 14th Asia Pacific Conference on NDT
- Paper on “In-situ Metallography for the Plant Health Assessment study and Failure Investigation” 2008 | MENDT-2007
- Technical Paper titled “Fitness for Service: Using NDT and Inspection” by Paresh Haribhakti, Katan Upadhyaya, Jaidev Patel & V.K. Bafna presented at the 14th Asia Pacific conference on NDT (2013)
APPRECIATION & AWARDS
- Indian Institute of Metals (Baroda Chapter) confers the IIM-KK Award in recognition of outstanding, selfless & meritorious contribution towards Professional field in particular and Metallurgical society in general, in the state of Gujarat. (2016)
- Recognition of Active Participation as an invited speaker at 4th Middle East Conference by Saudi Arabian Section of ASNT (2007)
- Recognition of Active Participation at Inspection Technical Exchange Meeting & Exhibition by Saudi Aramco, Inspection Department (2008)
- Appreciation from 5th Middle East NDT Conference by Saudi Arabian Section of ASNT for Active Participation as an invited speaker (2009)
- Recognition of Participation as an invited speaker at 6th International Conference by MICMEP (2009)
- Appreciation from ‘NACE West Africa (Africa Region), Dhahran (Saudi Arabia section) & Bahrain society for engineers’ for presenting a technical paper at the 13th Middle East Corrosion Conference & Exhibition (February 14th – 17th 2010)
- Recognition of Active Participation as an invited speaker at International conference & exhibition by ASM International (Heat treat show in 2010)
- Appreciation from 13th Middle East Corrosion Conference by NACE, Middle East Section for Active Participation as an invited speaker (2010)
- Appreciation from Saudi Aramco GO Inspection & Corrosion Forum, Shedgum Gas Plant for Active Participation as an invited speaker (2010)
- Recognition of Active Participation as an invited speaker at 1st NACE – Jubail Industrial Forum organised by NACE – Jubail KSA Section (2011)
- Recognition of Joint partnership with Indian Institute of Metals (IIM) for delivering an advance workshop on Remaining Life Assessment of Power & Progress Boilers (December 13th – 14th 2013) Awarded for valuable participation at Saudi Aramco: Corrosion Awareness Day (June 5th 2014) Appreciation from ASM International as author during International Conference on Material Testing and Characterisation (December 4th - 6th 2014)
- Appreciation from Jeddah Refinery for a valuable presentation on “Fitness For Service” (2015)
- Recognition of Active Participation as an invited speaker at SABIC STM 12 organised by SABIC (2016) Appreciation from HADEED, SABIC, KSA for active participation in Reliability Campaign (2016)
- Recognition of Active Participation as an invited speaker at M.S. University (Baroda) for Meta-Fiesta organised by Society of Metallurgical Engineering (SME) (March 30th 2017)
- Recognition of Active Participation as an invited speaker at Indian Society for Non-Destructive Testing (September 1st 2018)
- Recognition of Active Participation as an invited speaker at “Two Day symposium on Corrosion & Its Control, SCES 2018” organised by Society of Metallurgical Engineering at M.S. University Baroda (October 3rd & 4th 2018)
- Recognition of Active Participation as an invited speaker at 12th National Conference on Boiler & Steam Systems (SteamTech 2019)
Areas of expertise
Paresh Haribhakti works across eight fields of materials and integrity engineering, from refinery equipment life assessment and fitness-for-service to cross-country pipeline integrity and applied research for materials selection, for operators in oil and gas, petrochemicals, fertilisers and power in India and the GCC.
- Refinery equipment life assessment
- Fitness for service to API 579 and ASME FFS-1
- Remaining life assessment
- Cross-country pipeline integrity
- Root-cause failure investigation
- Corrosion prevention and metallurgy
- Boiler tube and pressure parts
- Applied research for materials selection
Experience
| Period | Role | Organisation |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 to present | Co-founder and Managing Director | TCR Advanced Engineering Pvt. Ltd., Vadodara |
| 1990 to 1999 | Senior Research Engineer | Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd., troubleshooting metallurgist on failure investigation and remaining life assessment |
Life assessment and failure investigation, by client
The register below names the operators whose refinery, fertiliser, power and pipeline assets Paresh Haribhakti has assessed, and what the assignment was in each case. It is the client-by-client form of the narrative above.
| Client | Assignment |
|---|---|
| Reliance Industries, Jamnagar | Metallurgical damage assessment at Asia’s largest grass-root refinery during the VGO-HT2 fire incident; remaining life assessment at the Patalganga plant; fitness-for-service assessment of the isomerization reactor and the VGO reactor and exchanger. |
| Saudi Aramco, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia | RO plant corrosion investigation including inlet flange failure of a furnace reactor, and remaining life assessment of furnace tubes by the Omega method to API 579. |
| SABIC, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia | Failure investigation, remaining life assessment and fitness-for-service assignments on high-pressure, high-temperature refinery components. |
| OMIFCO, Oman | Fertiliser plant component assessments including reactor outlet lines, gasket failures and reformer tube failure investigation. |
| QAFCO, Qatar | Remaining life assessment, failure investigation and condition assessment of high-pressure, high-temperature components at the world’s largest integrated fertiliser plant, including on-site repair decisions. |
| Pemex, Mexico and Notore, Nigeria | Reformer tube life assessment using ARTiS robotic NDT; ammonia storage tank failure investigation in Nigeria. |
| Kuwait Cement Company and Shell Gas Terminal, Sri Lanka | Ball mill NDT assessment; on-site plant evaluation. |
| Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals | Repair weld solution for a used Incoloy 800H ammonia plant header at India’s largest fertiliser and petrochemical complex. |
| Hindustan Lever and Bangladesh Lever | Remaining life assessment of power and utility boilers and package boilers. |
| ITER-India and Solvay | Marine corrosion consulting for underwater and metallic structures at seashores, dams, bridges and sea-transport components; crevice corrosion and electrochemical study for ITER-India; material selection for corrosion service at Solvay. |
Cross-country pipeline integrity and root-cause investigations
| Client | Assignment |
|---|---|
| L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering Ltd. | Failure and fitness-for-service assessment for the ONGC 42-inch to 36-inch interconnecting pipeline to API 579, including defect characterisation and life estimation. |
| BG Exploration & Production India Ltd. | Root cause investigation of PGC#3 HPC liquid and PE riser line failures, including service-induced degradation assessment. |
| Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., Odisha | Failure analysis of two 90-degree elbows in the SV02 bypass line, including internal corrosion assessment. |
| GAIL (India) Ltd., Bangalore | Metallurgical investigation of a damaged 30-inch DBPL pipeline section, assessing thinning, defect morphology and remaining life. |
What each system he built measures
Four systems carry his name inside the TCR group: AiOM, ARTiS, INSIPOL-2000 and the Microstructure Characterizer. Each one exists to put a number on something an inspector previously judged, and the table states what that number is.
| System | What it measures |
|---|---|
| AiOM, Asset Integrity Optimization and Management | Availability, reliability, downtime, maintenance cost and failure rate, against the API RP 580 and API RP 581 risk-based inspection frameworks. |
| ARTiS, robotic reformer tube inspection | Attenuation level, tube diameter and bowing angle, captured in digital format by an indigenously developed ultrasonic crawler. |
| INSIPOL-2000 | In-situ metallographic replication with the human error taken out of it, so a large number of on-site microstructures can be prepared and ruled on quickly. |
| Microstructure Characterizer (MiC) | Grain size, coating thickness and phase composition, by AI-driven image processing. In use in research laboratories worldwide, including National Oilwell Varco and Boeing in the United States. |
Training delivered
Paresh Haribhakti is the principal expert at Evolve by TCR, TCR Advanced’s training school, and teaches the sixteen courses below to QA, QC, inspection and integrity engineers at operator sites and in open programmes.
- Risk-based inspection (RBI) in process, petrochemical and oil and gas plants
- Fitness for service to API 579 and ASME FFS-1
- Heat exchanger inspection, condition assessment, fitness-for-service and failure investigation
- Damage mechanisms and life management of gas and steam turbine components
- Reformer and boiler tube damage mechanisms, failure investigation and remaining life assessment
- T-91 and P-91 high-pressure welding technology, and welding metallurgy for engineers
- Pressure vessel mechanical design to the ASME pressure vessel codes
- Damage mechanisms for static equipment in refineries and process industries
- Failure prevention, repair and life enhancement of piping, vessels and tanks
- Low-temperature service: metal properties, manufacturing and testing
- Reactor effluent air cooler (REAC): damage mechanisms, corrosion, fitness-for-service and inspection
- Localised and intergranular corrosion of austenitic stainless steel
- Hydrogen damage for industry: asset integrity and damage mechanism
- High-temperature degradation of industrial components
- Asset integrity management for cross-country pipelines
- Asset integrity management for process industries
Platforms in 2026
FLEX India Conference; Bharat Corrosion Meet; the ASNT India NDT Network Event, Vadodara; SPE India, Vadodara Chapter; a technical session at Indorama, Nigeria; and FGI, Vadodara.
Paresh Haribhakti on video
- "Failure Investigation of Boiler Tubes" book launch by Paresh Haribhakti
- Book Launch "Failure Investigation of Boiler Tubes: A Comprehensive Approach" By Paresh Haribhakti
- Paresh Haribhakti's book on "Boiler Tube Failure" featured on India News
- TCR Advanced MD, Paresh Haribhakti on News 18
- ૨૫ વર્ષની સફળતાનો ઉત્સવ: શ્રી પરેશ હરિભક્તિ દ્વારા TCR એડવાન્સ્ડની સફરની ઉજવણી | રજત જયંતિ પ્રસંગ
- Paresh Haribhakti, MD TCR Advanced remembers Mr. V.K. Bafna the Chairman Emeritus of TCR Engineering
- Paresh Haribhakti: Honoring a Legacy, Building the Future of TCR Advanced
On the podcast
Paresh Haribhakti appears on the TCR Engineering podcast channel, where TCR discusses failure investigations, asset integrity and the standards the work is held to. The episodes are published on TCR Engineering’s own channel.
Documents
Download the reference documents for this page. Every file is hosted on this domain and is also listed in the site document library.
In the Insights
Paresh Haribhakti is named in 44 published articles in the TCR Engineering Insights archive, covering the investigations, accreditations and technical work Paresh has been part of. Each one is dated and on the record. The 12 most recent are shown first.
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Reformer tube fitness for service: Evolve by TCR opens a complimentary webinar on 25 September 2026
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ARTiS comes to Japan: answering when a reformer tube comes out, not whether it is damaged
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Wabtec Corporation Writes to TCR Advanced: Failure Analysis, Material Characterisation and Reliability Testing
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Boiler Tube Failure Analysis
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Ferrography Wear Debris Analysis for Lube Oil
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TCR Engineering and Chugai Technos Sign MOU to Connect India and Japan in Inspection and Asset Integrity
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The Pipeline That Lost 40% Capacity (And Nobody Knew Until C-Value Analysis Revealed the Truth)
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Boiler Tube Failure Analysis: A Complete Investigation Guide for Power Plants
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How TCR Advanced Ensures Storage Tank Integrity Through Comprehensive Condition Assessment
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TCR's Specialised Training Programmes: Elevating Fertiliser Industry Excellence Through Expert-Led Technical Education
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Why Failure Analysis Metallurgical Laboratory India Services Prevent Million-Dollar Disasters
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Boiler Inspection Services India IBR Approved: Your Complete Guide to Safe, Compliant Operations
The other 32
- Reliability by Design: Lead with Life Cycle Integrity
- Free Masterclass on Asset Integrity Management
- Integrity Despite Defects Podcast on FFS
- Paresh Haribhakti on the 'Metallurgist’s Insight' Podcast
- Evolve by TCR: Bridging Education and Industry
- Webinar on RLA of Boilers
- Hindalco Commends TCR for Failure Analysis Expertise
- TCR Advanced: 25 Years of Innovation and Excellence
- Free Webinar on Metallographic In-Situ Replica
- Boiler Tube Failure - Book Launch Event
- Paresh Haribhakti - Plant Integrity Solution workshop
- STEAMTECH - 2017
- TCR Advanced celebrates milestone year 2015-16
- Boiler and Steam Systems - STEAMTECH
- Paresh Haribhakti wins the KK Award
- Paresh Haribhakti addresses at IITM
- Rohit Bafna welcomes HE Dr Abdul Hussain Bin Ali Mirza
- Workshop on Fitness for Service by Paresh Haribhakti
- ‘Materials of Construction for Chemical Process Plants’ at IIChE (NRC)
- MET ‘14 + Heat Treat Show
- INS National Workshop on Corrosion and Condition Monitoring
- Paresh Haribhakti at International Corrosion Conference
- TCR Engineering at Fertilisers Association of India seminar
- TCR Advanced gets approval from Cameron
- V.K. Bafna, Paresh Haribhakti at ASM Heat Treat Show
- Paresh Haribhakti speaks at MICMEP-EAC 2009
- TCR PPSimtech agreement
- TCR chairs CII session on Condition Monitoring
- Article from TCR now Published on NDT.net
- Middle East Nondestructive Testing Conference and Exhibition
- TCR participates at NDE 2007, India
- 61st Annual Technical Meeting - Indian Institute of Metals (IIM)
The rest of the bench
The TCR bench runs to 28 named leaders across TCR Engineering, TCR Advanced and the group functions, and every one of them is on record with their role, their credentials and the work they sign for.
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