Group
Global
The Vadodara bench carries the failure-investigation library, the fitness-for-service casework and the AiOM platform. It is led by Paresh Haribhakti, Managing Director of TCR Advanced and Global Technical Consultant to the TCR group, who has solved more than 10,000 industrial problems and pioneered in-situ metallography as an accepted technique for process-plant monitoring in India.
TCR Advanced Engineering Pvt. Ltd. is the group’s asset integrity and engineering consulting arm at Makarpura, Vadodara. It delivers Fitness for Service, Remaining Life Assessment, failure analysis and the AiOM platform under its own NABL ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation (TC-6739, 431 scope items), serving refining, fertiliser, power and pipeline clients across India.
TCR Advanced is the asset integrity, engineering consulting, and contract R&D company of the group. It delivers: Fitness for Service per API 579-1/ASME FFS-1, Remaining Life Assessment, Risk-Based Inspection delivered as the Knowledge-Based Audit (KBA), Engineering Critical Assessment per API 1104 Annex A and BS 7910, the AiOM platform stack (Asset Integrity Optimisation and Management, six-pillar architecture including the AiOM-CCP cross-country pipelines application), reformer tube inspection through the ARTiS robotic crawler, structural audit, fire damage assessment, plant life extension, and root-cause failure analysis.
TCR Advanced holds its accreditations and statutory recognitions in its own name, separate from TCR Engineering's. Each line below is read off the certificate itself, with the body that issued it and the date it runs to, so a buyer can check it at source.
| Accreditation or approval | Issued by | Scope | Reference | Valid to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ISO/IEC 17025:2017 | NABL, an ILAC MRA signatory | Chemical and mechanical testing, including metallography | TC-6739 | 13 October 2029 |
| ISO/IEC 17025:2017 | NABL | Non-destructive testing, at the NDT facility at 42/A, R.M. Industries, Makarpura | TC-13053 | 2 February 2030 |
| NADCAP Accredited, Materials Testing (AC7101) | Performance Review Institute | Materials testing laboratories | PRI 29227245998 | 31 May 2027 |
| Well Known Material Testing Laboratory | Central Boilers Board, under the Indian Boiler Regulations | Material testing for boilers | Certificate 36 | 18 July 2027 |
| Well Known Remnant Life Assessment Organisation | Central Boilers Board, under the Indian Boiler Regulations | Remnant life assessment of boilers operating up to and above 120 kg/cm² | Certificate 122 | 18 July 2027 |
TCR Advanced is also recognised by The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda as a research institution for doctoral research.
TCR Advanced is the group's asset integrity and reliability arm at Vadodara, and this is the bench that carries it: failure investigation, fitness for service to API 579-1, remaining life assessment, the boiler and reformer tube practice, the laboratory quality system, and the AiOM platform. Seventeen people, named.
Paresh Haribhakti
Managing Director
Managing Director of TCR Advanced and Global Technical Consultant to the TCR group. Over two decades in metallography and microstructure examination, more than 10,000 industrial problems solved, and the pioneer of in-situ metallography as an accepted and reliable technique for process-plant monitoring in India.
Alpana Haribhakti
Director
Aashana Haribhakti Gupta
Director
Ketankumar Upadhyaya
Senior General Manager, Reliability Engineering
Over 35 years in reliability engineering, corrosion, inspection, testing and metallurgical analysis. Specialises in Engineering Critical Assessment, fitness for service to API 579-1 and ASME FFS-1, remaining life assessment, failure analysis and NDT. Technical lead for FFS and for the ARTiS reformer tube programme.
Gopul Patel
General Manager, AiOM Software Development
API 580 certified Risk-Based Inspection practitioner. Has led the AiOM asset optimisation platform from inception: the material library, the engineering tools, the FFS calculations, semi-quantitative risk analysis to API 581, spare refurbishment, the Integrity Operating Window and the intelligent plant interface.
Chiral Patel
Head of Business Development, Refinery, Petrochemical and Pipeline Integrity
Over 20 years in cathodic protection and pipeline integrity. Runs the turnkey CP practice out of Vadodara with a regional office at Bhubaneswar and CP services offered pan-India, and leads business development for refinery, petrochemical and pipeline work.
Deepak Chandarana
Vice President, Evolve by TCR
Heads Evolve, the training and knowledge-sharing vertical, delivering technical training aligned to the applicable standards and regulatory frameworks across India's industrial sectors.
Sohel Vaidya
Deputy General Manager, Business Development and Projects
Over 15 years at TCR, with a Master's in Applied Physics and in Sales and Marketing. Leads the business development and projects division, turning customised proposals into long-term engagements, with a record of client retention across sectors.
Pooja Mehta
Senior Manager, Failure Investigation
Over 15 years in failure investigation, leading the metallurgical testing and root cause analysis team.
Nikhil Sabhaya
Technical Manager, NDT and RLA
Master's in Industrial Metallurgy, MS University of Baroda. ASNT Level III in ET, UT, PT, MT and VT, API 510, API 571 and CSWIP 3.1. Leads boiler remaining life assessment and the ARTiS reformer tube workflow.
Kamlesh Rana
Technical Manager, Testing
Over 35 years in fabrication and forging, quality assurance and process control. A qualified ISO 9001 internal auditor with hands-on API audit experience, he has led QA departments across multiple forge shops.
Ankur Haribhakti
Senior Manager, Laboratory
Responsible for testing that meets its technical requirements and delivers accurate, reliable results.
Henil Shah
Quality Manager
M.Sc. in Applied Physics with over six years in materials testing. Specialises in OES, XRF and wet chemical analysis, and in corrosion methods including IGC, electrochemical, salt spray and immersion testing. A certified ISO/IEC 17025:2017 internal auditor who leads QMS and process audits.
M.Y. Joshi
Reliability Advisor
Over 38 years, formerly at GNFC. A cross-vertical reliability advisor with particular depth in fertilisers and chemical processing.
Sonal Patel
Head of Accounts
Ashu Sharma
Manager, Operations and Business Development
Rajesh Lakhnotra
Manager, Business Development
A failure investigation at TCR Advanced opens with a core team, not a test request. Paresh Haribhakti chairs it with Ketan Upadhyaya, who heads the failure investigation line, Pooja Mehta as Investigation Lead and Prof. M.N. Patel for SEM and EDS; they decide the approach and the extent of testing before any destructive work begins.
| Tier | Role | Who | Responsibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Technical Authority and report signatory | Paresh Haribhakti | Chairs the core team, approves the investigation plan, reviews the evidence at the root-cause stage and signs every final report |
| 2 | Head, failure investigation line | Ketan Upadhyaya | Investigation, laboratory and testing line; NDE, acoustic emission, microstructure and SEM interpretation; FFS, ECA and remaining-life positions arising from the findings |
| 2 | Management system, AiOM and RBI | Gopul Patel | Laboratory sample management, RBI context to API RP 580/581, back-up SEM and EDS, transfer of findings into the client's integrity records on AiOM |
| 3 | Investigation Lead | Pooja Mehta | Plans each investigation and its test sequence, directs the bench, interprets the results and drafts the report |
| 3 | SEM and EDS In-charge | Prof. M.N. Patel | Directs the four SEMs; plans and reviews fractography and EDS microanalysis |
| 3 | Boilers, reformers and pressure vessels | Nikhil Sabhaya | NDT of the as-received component before sectioning; IBR boiler and reformer-tube damage assessment; field NDT and in-situ metallography |
| 3 | Cathodic protection and pipeline integrity | Chiral Patel | External-corrosion failures of buried and submerged assets |
| 4 | Laboratory, testing and metallography | Ankur Haribhakti, Kamlesh Rana, Rakesh Gandhi | Custody and scheduling; chemical, mechanical and corrosion testing; specimen preparation and optical metallography |
| Q | Independent quality | Henil Shah | ISO/IEC 17025 compliance, calibration and traceability, proficiency testing, measurement uncertainty, impartiality |
Bench staff test only after authorisation under ISO/IEC 17025:2017 clause 6.2: supervised training, witnessed performance, written authorisation by the Technical Manager and continued monitoring. The senior advisors named in the expert network below join the core team on cases in their field.
Every core failure investigation test runs in-house, on owned equipment, in a dedicated 950 m² laboratory building at 250-252/9 GIDC Estate, Makarpura, commissioned in 2013, with separate sections for sample receipt, specimen preparation, metallography, electron microscopy, chemical analysis, mechanical testing, corrosion testing and NDT.
| Discipline | Principal equipment |
|---|---|
| Electron microscopy | Four SEMs: Pemtron SEMART SS-100 (2012), JEOL JCM-6000 (2022), Thermo Fisher Phenom XL G2 (2024), JEOL JSM-IT-210L (2026), all with EDS under one in-charge |
| Metallography | Six Olympus GX51 inverted microscopes with image capture; stereo zoom and low-magnification stations for macro-fractography; automatic polishing and precision cutting; four INSIPOL-2000 portable replica kits, built in-house |
| Chemical analysis | Two Spectro SPECTROMAXx optical emission spectrometers; LECO carbon and sulphur analyser; Thermo Niton and Olympus Vanta portable XRF |
| Mechanical testing | 60 t and 40 t universal testing machines; Charpy impact; Rockwell, Brinell, Vickers and micro-Vickers hardness; Jominy end-quench and heat-treatment furnaces to 1,100 °C |
| Corrosion testing | Gamry potentiostat; 15 intergranular corrosion and six pitting and crevice set-ups (ASTM A262, ASTM G48); two salt spray chambers (ASTM B117) |
| NDT | Three each of phased array, TOFD, eddy current and ultrasonic flaw detection sets; oxide-scale thickness gauge for boiler tubes; ferrite and permeability meters; videoscopes |
| Software | MiC, the AI-assisted microstructure characteriser developed in-house for grain size, phase fraction and inclusion rating; AiOM for RBI to API RP 580/581 |
Beyond the standing bench, TCR Advanced retains a panel of nine independent specialists, each named, each with the ground they cover and the record behind it. They are brought onto a case when the question needs a depth of operating history that no laboratory carries in-house.
TCR Advanced Engineering runs its own website at www.tcradvanced.com. The consulting arm publishes its complete practice, platform documentation and engagement record on its own site: Fitness-for-Service to API 579-1/ASME FFS-1, Remaining Life Assessment, Risk-Based Inspection, the AiOM platform and ARTiS reformer-tube robotics.
TCR Advanced Engineering completed twenty-five years in 2024. The silver jubilee is recorded in the EIN Presswire release of 9 December 2024, which sets out the practice V.K. Bafna and Paresh Haribhakti established together and what it does today.
Walk the TCR Advanced laboratory at Vadodara, Gujarat, without leaving your desk. The Google Street View walkthrough is open to clients who want to see the bench before they visit, or in place of a visit. Click the photograph to open it.
It opens in Google Maps in a new tab. Nothing is loaded from Google on this page, so the walkthrough costs this page nothing until you ask for it.
Thirty-two of the posters are the values wall: the hashtag themes TCR Advanced printed for its own people in Vadodara, on the black and green of the TCR Advanced mark.
32 posters. The line under each card quotes that poster’s own printed copy, exactly as it appears on the artwork.
One lab. One team, making a difference
We always strive to deliver above and BEYOND EXPECTATIONS
Excellence · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Success starts with you
Our success stories are countless because our people renew and reinvent to do more. Indeed, be more.
Responsibility · Portrait, artwork as supplied
100% in everything we do
Let passion drive your actions
Passion · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Think local, act global
Shaping the future. Together.
Global perspective · Portrait, artwork as supplied
You are a true leader
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then you are a true leader.
Leadership · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Take the first step together
Great things are done by a series of small steps taken together.
Teamwork · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Many religions, one mission
In our diversity lies our greatest strengths
Diversity · Portrait, artwork as supplied
We identify challenges before they become challenging
Whatever be the problem, be a part of the solution
Always learning · Portrait, artwork as supplied
I wanted to grow
TCR has given me the chance more than anywhere I could have chosen.
Growth · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Honesty and team collaboration wins championships
Talent can win games, but honesty and team collaboration wins CHAMPIONSHIPS
Teamwork · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Fiercely unbiased with unwavering ethics
We always do what is RIGHT
Integrity · Portrait, artwork as supplied
When safety is a first, you last
At TCR, safety is not optional, it is a top priority always.
Safety · Portrait, artwork as supplied
At TCR, training is all about growth and learning
Strength comes from continuous training
Trained to excel · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Unlocks the door to personal excellence
The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential
Excellence · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Quality is the pride of TCR workmanship
We always deliver results that drive action
Quality · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Determined to go beyond
Some excel because they are destined to but most people in TCR excel because they are simply determined to GO BEYOND.
Excellence · Portrait, artwork as supplied
TEAM: Together, Everyone Achieves More
Alone we can do so little, together we can do a lot more
Teamwork · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Passion drives us forward
At TCR, we love what we do and who we do it for.
Passion · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Courage and accountability
At TCR, integrity is always doing the right thing. It is an expression of courage and accountability.
Integrity · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Global leaders always trust TCR
TCR prides itself on being most ethical in all its action. We are strongly driven by ethics and it reflects in all our practices.
Ethics · Portrait, artwork as supplied
We are obsessed about having an eye for detail
The most preferred service provider
Xtraordinary · Portrait, artwork as supplied
In all our actions the focus always remains on Customer
Customer sits at the core of TCR
Customer · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Pursuit of Excellence happens to be our working philosophy
Excellence is not an act, it is a habit at TCR
Excellence · Portrait, artwork as supplied
We take bold steps in challenging the status-quo
Consistently unlocking insights that prompt action and yield results
Lead · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Make success happen
There is something in the TCR Spirit that helped us to sustain and flourish.
Spirit · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Building a legacy, creating impact
Over four decades of industry transformation
Leadership · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Greatness is a practice, not a temporary status
At TCR, we don't settle for anything less than greatness.
Greatness · Portrait, artwork as supplied
We care to serve because it is our responsibility
Redefining employee satisfaction
Social responsibility · Portrait, artwork as supplied
At TCR, we have sailed against the wind and constantly reinvented ourselves
Our job is to look into the future and see TCR not as it is today but what it can become.
Game changers · Portrait, artwork as supplied
We surrender the me for the we
One team attitude
Teamwork · Landscape, artwork as supplied
TCR is always a culture of safety first
TCR believes that safety isn't expensive. It is priceless.
Safety · Landscape, artwork as supplied
TCR is one of the safest chain of commercial laboratories in India
TCR has an exemplary track record since its inception and has to its credit no major lost-time arising out of health, safety, or environmental accidents.
Safety · Landscape, artwork as supplied
Seven posters state what the Vadodara laboratory does: remaining life assessment under Central Boiler Board approval, failure investigation, fitness for service, metallurgy, third-party inspection and emergency response.
7 posters. The line under each card quotes that poster’s own printed copy, exactly as it appears on the artwork.
Reducing plant shutdown time
Optimizing Asset Integrity for maximizing productivity, safety, and reliability
Asset integrity · Portrait, artwork as supplied
Best-in-class third party inspection
Deep industry expertise ensures exemplary services
Third-party inspection · Landscape, artwork as supplied
Trusted and approved lab by Central Boiler Board for Remaining Life Assessment
High Cycle & Low Cycle Fatigue, Thermal Fatigue, Thermo Mechanical Fatigue, Wear, Thermal Aging, Creep, Embitterment, Corrosion
Remaining life assessment · Landscape, artwork as supplied
Leading expertise in Failure Investigation, RLA and FFS
in Failure Investigation, Remaining Life Assessment (RLA) and Fitness for Service (FFS)
Failure investigation · Landscape, artwork as supplied
Pioneers in metallurgy
Expert metallurgists and laboratory technicians
Metallurgy · Landscape, artwork as supplied
Trusted partner in critical situations
Renowned as the emergency service provider for companies across the world.
Emergency response · Landscape, artwork as supplied
Optimizing Asset Integrity
Working with the Industry leaders in Power, Fertilizer, Petrochemicals and O&G, ensuring the technical integrity of assets for maximizing productivity, safety, and reliability.
Asset integrity · Landscape, artwork as supplied
Download the reference documents for this page. Every file is hosted on this domain and is also listed in the site document library.
These published insights record the work of TCR Advanced Engineering, Vadodara: the failure investigations and fitness-for-service studies, the ARTiS reformer tube inspection system, and the specialist fatigue and fracture work the Vadodara bench was built for. 18 published insights on this site record TCR Advanced work. The 6 most recent are below.
NADCAP has accredited TCR Engineering at Navi Mumbai and TCR Advanced at Vadodara for Materials Testing Laboratories under AC7101. India has 51…
Wabtec Corporation has written to TCR Advanced Engineering to record its appreciation for engineering investigations, metallurgical assessments,…
Expert insights on storage tank and silo condition assessment from TCR Advanced's MD Paresh Haribhakti, combining standards with innovation.
TCR Advanced Engineering exhibits at The Fertilizer Show 2026, demonstrating asset integrity and reliability solutions for a smarter fertiliser industry
ARTiS revolutionises reformer tube inspection with Level III FFS assessment per API 579, predicting failures months ahead of traditional methods.
TCR Advanced is now qualified by Casale SA for SX3000 corrosion tests, bringing Swiss-trusted precision to India's engineering frontlines.
TCR Advanced Engineering Pvt. Ltd. is a separate joint venture company, held 50 percent by TCR Engineering and 50 percent by the Haribhakti family, headquartered at Makarpura GIDC, Vadodara. It operates its own laboratory and consulting practice, and its complete engagement record is published on tcradvanced.com.
TCR Advanced holds its own NABL ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation, certificate TC-6739 with 431 scope items, valid 14 October 2025 to 13 October 2029, and its own NADCAP AC7101 Materials Testing accreditation, PRI certificate 29227245998, valid to 31 May 2027. These are distinct from TCR Engineering's accreditations.
The practice covers Fitness for Service per API 579-1/ASME FFS-1, Remaining Life Assessment, Risk-Based Inspection delivered as the Knowledge-Based Audit, Engineering Critical Assessment per API 1104 Annex A and BS 7910, the AiOM platform, ARTiS reformer-tube inspection, structural audit, fire damage assessment, plant life extension and failure analysis.
Managing Director Paresh Haribhakti, co-author of the ASM International 2018 book on boiler tube failure investigation and of the ASM Handbook Volume 11A chapter on failures of boilers and related equipment (2021), leads the practice, supported by a senior bench across reliability engineering, failure investigation, NDT and engineering design.
