Bucher Hydraulics - Adding power to the Indian economy

By Niraj M Wanikar, Chief Editor, CNCTimes.com, 2015-05-29 14:30:13

India, as we all know, is an agricultural country. The prime business of those staying in this vast country is farming while industrial sector, technological advancements, real estate business and infrastructural developments play a second fiddle. However, one company that drives all the above sectors is Bucher Hydraulics Pvt Ltd. Situated in the huge industrial belt of IMT, Manesar in Gurgaon, the company has been manufacturing hydraulic valves and systems that are mainly used for various applications in the agriculture, municipal vehicles, construction equipment and mining equipment. 

“We are part of a 207-year-old Swiss-German conglomerate Bucher Industries AG. This group is a reputed European brand having five different verticals with Bucher Hydraulics being one among them. The company has two plants in Switzerland, four in Germany, three in the USA and one each in Italy, Brazil, India and China. The plant in India is located at IMT, Manesar and during last eight years, has grown leaps and bounds,” the Managing Director of the company, Mr Kapil Sehgal said. 

Commenting on the changing technology within the country, Mr Sehgal said the hydraulics applications industry is developing rapidly with almost 60% of tractors using power steering while carrying out ploughing activities on the field. “The farmers are expecting more options to choose from so that they can be at par with the advancements besides helping them in better upkeep of the equipment both on and off the field. However, as compared to the world market, Indian agriculture sector is witnessing a slow growth which is evident from the fact that the tractors in the Europe have smart sensors to help them provide better yield. We are committed to improving this situation and have been initiating steps towards the same,” Mr Sehgal said. 

Explaining the manufacturing process of hydraulic valves in detail, Mr Sehgal said the process varies from product to product. “But in general terms, it includes machining, washing and finishing, assembly, testing and packaging before despatching the product to the user. Since we use cast iron and aluminium as raw materials, machining has to be done automatically so that the quality of each and every product remains consistent. So in this case, machining forms the primary stage followed by other processes,” Mr Sehgal said and added that while machining process is entirely done on CNC machines, the finishing and other processes are carried out on semi-automatic machines. 



“We have been conducting only the milling operations while all the turning operations are outsourced. Since the day I sold my company Sterling Fluid Technologies to Bucher Industries in March, 2006 after forming it in June, 2000, we have been using CNC technology to carry out our machining operations. Initially, we were outsourcing the entire process and conduct finishing n semi-automatic machine, but in August, 2013, we purchased the first Haas CNC machine and since then have been conducting machining process inside. Content with the functioning of Haas machine, we decided to go in for more Haas machines and got the same in March, 2014. We added another two Haas machines in May, 2014 to our fleet and as of now we have four Haas machines of which one is vertical machining centre (VMC) while the rest are horizontal machining centres (HMCs),” Mr Sehgal added. 

Asked about meeting all the production challenges by implementing CNC machine technology, Mr Sehgal said there were no challenges as such for the company earlier since they were outsourcng the entire manufacturing process. “The only challenge we had was to learn to operate CNC machines. To meet that, we hired some people so as to bring the knowledge into our day-to-day functioning. We are happy to opt for Haas machines since the machines manufactured by the company has different specifications in terms of power ability, RPM capability and other parameters as compared to their competitors,” Mr Sehgal said and added that while purchasing Haas machines, the company ensured that they have through coolant capability and a big toolholder as it needs nearly 42 tools to complete manufacturing of the component. 

“Before finalising Haas, we conducted some benchmarks. We decided to give the machine a try and only if we were satisfied, we finalised the deal. We are happy that Haas HMC was able to do chip control, had lesser tool-to-tool time, better pallet changeover and above all the timing needed to manufacture the component was shorter as compared to others. We also didn’t face any maintenance issues as such and we are all satisfied with the performance of the machines,” Mr Sehgal opined. 

The official also hailed the excellent after-sales service of the company and said that there is no reason as such as to why the company will not go for purchasing more Haas machines in the future. “We want to grow at least six times in terms of sales. All 75 employees in the company are striving hard to achieve the target and hopefully with their support as well as support from Haas management, the company will achieve the goal,” Mr Sehgal said at the end on conversation. 

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