John Crane opens engineering facility

John Crane, a constituent of the Smiths Group and a global manufacturer and supplier of engineered sealing solutions, has opened its pound 1.5 million manufacturing, service and support centre in Bangalore.

The facility, located in Bangalore's Peenya industrial area, has been designed to be flexible enough for future expansions. The company presently has 25,000 square feet factory capacity and has plans to add an additional 20,000 square feet of office space to house 120 people.

The centre in Bangalore will provide engineering and technical backup for the John Crane network globally and also have CAD-based 3-D modelling service. It will support John Crane's software development, database administration and web maintenance activities.

The centre will also double up as a key-manufacturing hub for John Crane seals for the domestic market, fully-assembled power transmission couplings for both the domestic and Asia Pacific region plus coupling components for assembly at other John Crane facilities.

Speaking at the inauguration of the new facility, Keith Butler-Wheelhouse, chief executive, Smiths Group said, "Expansion in India moves us closer to our customers and closer to an area of high growth. This new centre of excellence also enables us to benefit from the pool of high quality people here in Bangalore".

John Crane India claimed that it enjoys a 10 per cent marketshare in the coupling and seals market, which is pegged around pound 26 million (Rs 208 crore).

This attributes to half per cent of John Crane's turnover of pound 500 million. However, John Crane India's total contribution is 1 per cent, including the international support centre at the centre of excellence in Bangalore.

According to Ashok Vasudevan, director and general manager John Crane India, "Today, John Crane offers the complete suite of engineered mechanical seals, sealing support systems and mechanical packings. The facility is an important addition to our global network. Designed with flexibility and future expansion in mind, it will further improve our ability to support our customers."