Gates-way
to success
Focus
on research & development and personalised customer service are
helping Gates India occupy a leading position in the hydraulic hose
segment
Gates
India is the Indian branch of the Gates Rubber Company, US. The company
is primarily in the business of hydraulic hose assembly manufacturing
and servicing. Its products run the gamut from original equipment and
aftermarket industrial and automotive belts, hoses and hydraulic products
to related products. The company caters to a large number of markets
including the agricultural, transportation, construction, chemical,
oil, manufacturing, mining, forestry, office equipment, computer, food
processing and food handling industries.
In
India, Gates deals in extremely high-pressure spiral hoses, very high-pressure
to medium-pressure braided hydraulic hoses, spiral and braided mining
hoses approved by Directorate General of Mines Safety; and medium- to
low-pressure industrial hoses.
Gates
also has other specialist hoses for hydraulic pressure lines, including
multi-fluid and high temperature hoses, hoses for return lines and suction
lines; oilfield hoses like rotary drilling and decoking hoses; automotive
hoses, for example power steering, air conditioning and air brake hoses;
and industrial hoses for specialist applications.
Gates’
customers are spread across several industries. According to Mr Arun
Vyas, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, these include construction
and heavy equipment manufacturers, Original Equipment Manufacturers
(OEM), mines, government, steel and cement.
Thrust
areas
The
company started trading in hoses in 1996, and a manufacturing facility
was commissioned in Punjab in 1998. Today, Gates India caters to three
broad market segments of OEMs, Institutional and Aftermarket. Mr Vyas
lays out the rationale: “It was decided in the beginning that due-stress
would have to be laid on OE development as a long term strategy. Since
Institutional and Aftermarket form more than two-thirds of the total
Indian market, these were focussed as a means to attain market leadership.”
Technology
focus
The
centrepiece of Gates operations is the state-of-the-art manufacturing
facility at Lalru near Chandigarh. Spread across 40 acres of land, the
facility is supported by good rail and road transport network and excellent
communication facilities. The plant has, claims Mr Vyas, manufacturing
and testing facilities that are world-class. The company claims that
this is perhaps the only hose manufacturing plant in India producing
long length hoses without using harmful lead or any other environmentally
hazardous material in the manufacturing process. “We are implementing
Gates worldwide standards in health, safety and environment, which will
ultimately meet the most stringent norms anywhere in the world,” says
Mr Vyas.
Major
technological advancements made by Gates over the recent years have
been in the areas of materials and product design developments. This
focus, claims Mr Vyas, has resulted in a very significant life cycle
improvement and an extremely flexible hose enabling substantial length
reduction in hose routing leading to economy for the end users.
Another
trend is an extremely high abrasion resistant cover (X-tra Tuff, Megatuff)
to give six times-more lifespan, constant pressure line hose for all
bore sizes for minimising inventory and a new global spiral no-skive
coupling with one stem, which cuts the cost to one third and is environmentally
friendly. The company claims to follow a stringent quality-control policy,
one that is uniform throughout its worldwide operations. “In an era
of globalisation, this is the least that OEMs can expect from their
suppliers,” asserts Mr Vyas.
R&D
The
R&D process is closely integrated with the Gates forward quality
planning system ensuring customer satisfaction. Besides, the India operations
have the back up of Gates worldwide R&D centres and technical know-how
to provide the best value for the user.
Gates
has developed excellent resources of technical manpower as well as testing
facilities. The result has been a number of new and improved products,
both in the hydraulic and industrial range, meeting the specific needs
of the Indian industry.
The
company claims that the R&D facility boasts of world-class physical
and chemical testing equipment, some of which is unique to the Indian
industry. Mr Vyas makes a special mention can be made of Flex Omega
Impulse Tester, Ultra Low Deep Freezer and very high pressure Burst
Test Rig.
He
points out that over the last several years, Gates India has developed
a number of products that have proved to be market-movers, through judicious
use of R&D. As an example, he gives the instance of Greenline industrial
hoses. Since the market demand was for a tougher, lighter, more flexible
and better performing hose at affordable prices, Gates came up with
the solution – Gates Greenline industrial hoses.
He
further adds that Gates initiated an exhaustive R&D effort for re-engineering
our industrial hose range to optimise the design so that it could meet
the exacting requirements of the Indian industry. For this Gates developed
Epigard, a series of compounds, each customised for a different industrial
application that meets the industry’s exacting standard. Epigard outperforms
the general-purpose rubber in every way, that is, flexibility, longevity
and resistance towards abrasion, heat, chemicals, ozone and weathering.
Mr
Vyas asserts that Greenline’s robust design and high safety factor make
it ideal to be....
....CONTD
