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| German major rolls out low cost auto filters |
| Mahesh Kulkarni / Chennai/ Bangalore Jun 08, 2009, 00:13 IST |
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Mann and Hummel Filter Private Limited (MHFPL), a 100 per cent subsidiary of Germany’s Euro 1.83 billion (Rs 12,200 crore) Mann+Hummel group, a supplier of automotive and industrial filters, today said it has developed low cost and light weight air filteration systems for the Indian automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
The company recently co-developed a new air intake filter system for the new world truck launched by Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd for their new car A-Star. These two products are designed and developed jointly by Mann and Hummel with the in-house R&D teams of Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki, Hans-Georg Hummel, managing director, MHFPL said.
“We have used a plastic component to develop an air intake filter system for commercial vehicles and passenger cars, which reduce the weight of the component by 50 per cent and save cost per component by around 25 per cent. It also enhances the mileage of the car,” he told Business Standard.
According to him, the new air filteration system developed for Tata Motors uses plastic components which is around 10 kg less than the conventional component made of sheet metal and claims to make a cost reduction of about 20-30 per cent.
The company’s future roadmap includes introduction of technologies in manufacturing automotive and industrial filters using light weight material like plastic. It is also planning to set up a blow moulding unit to make plastic components as per the customers’ requirements in India, Hummel said.
Hummel said the company is currently working with various other automobile OEMs in India to introduce customised solutions. In an effort to deliver customised solutions in lesser time, the company has set up a new R&D centre in Bangalore, at an investment of Rs 10 crore. The centre will independently develop, validate and release products that meet customer specification in the Indian market, he said.
The company, which has so far invested close to Euro 10 million (Rs 66.5 crore) in India, is looking to invest another Euro 15 million (about Rs 100 crore) in the next three years to expand its operations. MHFPL, which opened its first production unit in Tumkur, about 70 kms from Bangalore three years ago to manufacture industrial filters in a joint venture with Bosch, is setting up its second unit later this year at Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh.
The plant will have an installed capacity of 10 million filter elements per annum.
Manfred Wolf, managing director, Mann+Hummel Group said, the company, which concentrated on supplying air filters to industrial and construction equipment makers in the first three years of its operations, has now entered the automobile air filters segment under the brand Mann Filter. It aims to achieve a turnover of Rs 310 crore by 2014-15 in India from the present Rs 40 crore, a growth of close to 8 times in next five years.
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