ElectroMech is offering hoisting solutions for the commercial vehicle industry.
ElectroMech Material Handling Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd. has a significant presence in the automobile industry. The company specialises in hoisting and material handling solutions, and is based at Pune. With a wide range of solutions to offer, from a simple hoist to heavy-duty double girder cranes, ElectroMech employs a wide range of technology, which helps it to ensure that its hoisting and material handling solutions find use on the automotive shop floor. Aimed at the automotive shop floor are solutions like electric wire rope hoists, single girder and double girder, electric overhead travelling (EOT) cranes, gantry and semi-gantry cranes, jib cranes, wall travelling cranes, goliath cranes, under slung cranes, as well as special purpose cranes such as stacker cranes and tunnel mucking systems. Many of these also find use in the commercial vehicle industry. Reveals Tushar Mehendale, MD, ElectroMech (India), “Our cranes and hoists are supplied to diverse industries including automotive, construction, general engineering, heavy engineering, oil and gas, power, railways, ship building and steel.” Delving into details, Tushar draws attention to EOT cranes, and their use in handling press components, dies, chassis and cabins, etc. EOT cranes, he adds, also find other applications in manufacturing plants and infrastructure projects.
ElectroMech, according to Tushar, has achieved significant traction with commercial vehicle manufacturers like Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra and Volvo Buses India. “More than 100 ElectroMech cranes are in operation at Tata Motors plants in Pune, Lucknow, Pantnagar and Ahmedabad. They are being used for a variety of applications such as sub-assembly of multiple parts (chassis, axles), paint shop, assembly shop, stockyards, etc. Two material handling cranes deployed at Volvo Buses, Bangalore, are used to handle the bus bodies. At the factories of Mahindra and Mahindra in Mumbai and Pune, 11 ElectroMech cranes are used to handle the dies along with several smaller cranes on engine assembly line,” elaborates Mehendale. Leveraging its presence in the auto industry, and its ability to offer them the right solutions, ElectroMech, says Mehendale, is set to handle bigger challenges such as integrated handling on press shops, body shops, paint shops or even the entire automotive plant.
Understanding the application
Since cranes perform diverse roles in assembly shops, metal press shops, and other manufacturing processes, it is imperative that their application is understood. “Press components, typically require double girder cranes ranging from 35 metric tonne to 50 metric tonne to precisely position themselves and have a smooth movement. Our cranes, with micro-speed facility in all motions, ensures this,” claims Mehendale. An additional auxiliary mechanism is installed on the crane, if it is used for die handling, especially for the die tilting process (for maintenance or changing dies). “For die inter-bay transfers, we recommend die transfer trolleys because they are the safest way to handle dies for linear movements,” he avers. Lighter applications (up to two metric tonne) like cabin drop and chassis handling, requires tandem motion or synchronous motion of the hoists. A typical lifting of the two light cabins or chassis will be achieved with two hooks placed to an adjustable hook position. “Each application requires custom planning, engineering, installation and maintenance solutions that respond to the changing needs of the automotive industry,” asserts Mehendale. ElectoMech ensures that the solutions they provide are designed to address the requirements of the clients. This process enables ElectroMech to not only provide exact solution, but also to help in increasing efficiency and productivity.
Extending service
Being a company that caters to the client requirements, which involves customised solutions, ElectroMech’s basic engineering and design philosophy revolves around continuous innovation. “As a team, we are continuously on the lookout for means through which we can enhance our product offering. Thus, R&D forms a critical part of our company’s genetic make-up,” explains Mehendale. It is this emphasis on R&D that led ElectroMech to work in the direction of service and maintenance of the cranes. Identifying a large gap in the levels of service being offered to the cranes, both industrial and automotive, ElectroMech sensed a huge potential. To bridge this gap, ElectroMech established Cranedge, claims Mehendale, “the first Indian company dedicated to offering professional services for any make of industrial and tower cranes. It is a one stop shop for complete crane maintenance, services for industrial cranes, conventional power plant cranes, etc.” Cranedge, gaining from the manufacturing experience of ElectroMech, has one of the largest in-house facilities dedicated for any kind of maintenance job. Under the AMC (Annual Maintenance Contract) that Cranedge offers, it carries out health inspection of cranes and hoists through load tests, repairs and even undertakes capacity enhancement by overhauling. “Today Cranedge is in a position to develop specialised spares and help customers with their spares inventory planning,” says Mehendale.
Manufacturing muscle
ElectroMech’s plant at Pirangut, Pune, is spread over 20 acres of land and has a manufacturing area of 23, 000 sq. m. The company has implemented a ‘piece flow process’, claims Mehendale, “enabling us to manufacture more than 1,500 cranes a year.” ElectroMech’s semi-automated stacker crane system helps in storing all components in a systematic, palletised manner leading to quick retrieval. The plant is equipped with state-of-the-art CNC plasma cutting machines with an innovative vertical plate storage system that enables fast and precise cutting of steel used in fabrication of the cranes. It has semi-automated welding systems that ensure a consistent and top-class welding quality. The company also boasts of one of the largest paint booths in the industry – 50 m. long and 8 m. wide. “Ours is a down-draft type paint booth that allows us to paint multiple crane components simultaneously,” boasts Mehendale. ElectroMech’s dispatch area uses a giant 42 m. span single girder gantry crane with a SWL (Safe Working Load) of 20 tonne, that speeds up the dispatch process.
Apart from a great manufacturing muscle, ElectroMech maintains service excellence through a widespread network of sales offices across India. The company has a significant presence both in India and overseas. ElectroMech is the exclusive India partner for Germany-based ABUS crane systems for their entire range of standardised hoists and cranes. The company also has a tie-up with Stahl CraneSystems GmbH, Germany, which is the world leader in explosion-protection technology for providing explosion-protected cranes and hoists in India for the oil & gas segment. It also has inked a JV with China-based Zoomlion, to sell and service their range of tower cranes in India. “Our global synergies have helped us to scale our business and have enabled us to provide best solutions to clients in India and abroad,” concludes Mehendale.
