News, Views & Analysis BFW Offers Bonanza Services to Mark Golden Jubilee As a part of its Golden Jubilee celebration, Bharat Fritz Werner (BFW) has taken up various initiatives to mark the excellence of the company’s growth. During a recently held cultural event to mark the celebration, announced that the company will unilaterally offer two years’ warranty on products invoiced till March 31, 2012; even if the order stipulates a shorter warranty span. Apart from providing a direct benefit to customers, BFW has also donated ` 15 million towards better healthcare of the common folk.
Working towards education, BFW institutes 50 Kaanchan Tejas scholarships for meritorious engineering students and also contributes to mid-day meals for school students. BFW is also working towards its mission to plant 50,000 trees all over India to offset carbon dioxide emission, provide wildlife habitats and enhance the landscape. As a Bharat Fritz Werner steps into a new centenary of growth and part of its green endeavour, excellence the company recycles and reuses all waste water on the BFW gardens. Over 2,000 people The company hosts regular blood celebrated the BFW Golden Jubilee in donation camps and is associated with the three cultural shows in November. the Bangalore Kidney Foundation.
Caterpillar Plans Engine Plant in India
ABB Gets ` 175 Crore Order from Powergrid Corporation
A leading maker of construction and mining equipment, Caterpillar Inc. is setting up a project to produce Perkins branded 4000 series engines in India with an investment of $ 150 million. The location however is yet-to-be identified.
India’s leading power and automation technology group—ABB—has won an order worth about ` 175 crore from Powergrid Corporation of India to supply equipment for the Champa transmission substation in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.
The proposed project will be the first Perkins engine plant for Caterpillar outside the UK Rich Lavin – Group President and Executive Office Member – Caterpillar Inc., said, “The proposed Perkins engine plant would have an initial capacity of 3,000 numbers a year. This would be scaled up to 5,000 a year subsequently. Caterpillar would be hoping to export half the number produced at the proposed plant to serve the needs of countries in and around the region.” Caterpillar would primarily focus on industrial clients to hawk its Perkins engines. The company would also be pumping in an additional investment of $ 62 million into its existing off-highway truck manufacturing facility near here. The new investment was to expand the truck capacity. 46
MODERN MACHINE TOOLS - January 2012
The Champa substation will be a pooling station receiving power at 765 and 400 kilovolt (kv) and is part of Powergrid’s plan to build a stronger national grid in India “We are already executing several 765 kV substation projects for Powergrid and this success reiterates our partnership approach and long-term customer focus,” said Peter Leupp, ABB’s head of Power Systems. ABB will be involved in engineering, design, supply, installation and commissioning of the 765 kv and 400 kv switchyards, including the civil works. Key products to be supplied include
circuit breakers, current transformers, capacitive voltage transformers, surge arrestors and protection, control and relay panels.
Freudenberg Forays into Indian Electrical Vehicle Market The Freudenberg Group—a Gemany based family owned company worth € 5.4 billion—stepped into the fast growing Indian market for electrical vehicles with 100,000 electrical scooters estimated to be on the road already. The company’s special coating for battery separators helps to prevent possible short circuits in lithium-ion batteries, which is expected to make e-mobility safer. Freudenberg has developed a separator that increases the intrinsic safety of battery cells and thus helps to prevent possible explosions. For this purpose, a wafer-thin polyester fabric is coated with a paste. The product is a result of indigenous innovation at the company’s R&D facilities worldwide. As the world’s largest manufacturer of non-wovens, world market leader in sealing and vibration control technology, and a specialist for filters and mechatronic products, Freudenberg intends to become the leading component manufacturer for this highly promising futureoriented technology.