Set up in Belgaum, it will serve more than 150 SMEs supplying castings to automobile, textile and general engineering companies
The Belgaum Foundry Cluster (BFC), India’s first dedicated cluster for foundries and allied engineering industries, will go operational with a range of common facilities like a sand reclamation plant – the first of its kind in north Karnataka – by the end of October.
The BFC has been set up at a cost of Rs 25 crore, 75 per cent of which has been provided by the Central government, 15 per cent by the Karnataka government, and 10 per cent by Belgaum’s foundries.
“Though Belgaum is the major centre of the foundry industry and its products have a reputation for quality, the industry was neglected all these years. With the setting up of various common facilities, the foundries are geared up to face the new challenges set by user industries,” BFC Chairman Ram Bhandare said.
The BFC will serve more than 150 SMEs supplying castings to automobile, textile and general engineering companies. Its objective is to provide common infrastructure facilities to foundries and allied industries.
Units in and around BFC have been supplying castings to such companies as Bajaj Auto, TVS, Tata Motors, M&M, OTC Elevators, Ashok Leyland, and Caterpillar, among others.
Foundries produce castings, which is a basic raw material for industries such as automobiles, textile machinery manufacturing and machine tools, apart from valves, agro, pneumatics and railways. India is the fourth largest producer of ferrous and non-ferrous castings in the world.
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To make units in Belgaum more efficient and competitive, and enable them to secure larger export orders, BFC has set up common facilities like an optical emission spectrometer (OES), a vertical machining centre (VMC), a 3D coordinate measuring machine (CMM) and a sand reclamation plant.
The OES makes possible quick and accurate analysis of metals, and can perform simultaneous analysis of up to 60 elements. The VMC can perform such manufacturing activity as making patterns, dies and other machining work. Foundries can get their patterns made on the VMC at the most economical price, explained S M Kale, a manager at BFC.
The 3D coordinate measuring machine is also a highly accurate measuring system that helps in meeting customer demand. In order to accommodate heavy casting jobs on the machine, BFC has installed a hydraulic crane of 500 kg capacity, so that castings of up to 500 kg can be inspected on the CMM.
The most important facility at BFC is the Rs 10 crore sand reclamation plant, which will become operational by October end. Equipped with machinery imported from Richards Engineering of the UK, the plant can recycle 18 tonnes of sand per hour.
Normally, foundries in Belgaum require about 4,000 tonnes of sand daily, and source it from locations on the west coast, between Goa and Mangalore. Foundries use sand for making moulds.
“Sand is the major raw material for foundries, which presently spend around Rs 2,000 per tonne. With no sand reclamation plant until now in north Karnataka, foundries were unable to recycle sand. The reclamation plant can recycle sand up to four times and cut costs as many times,” Bhandare said.
Belgaum has emerged among the top 10 producers of castings in India, with foundries able to produce anything from 30 tonnes to 6,000 tonnes of castings per month. The units in BFC are likely to achieve a combined turnover of over Rs 700 crore in 2010-11, with exports accounting for some 50 per cent of this, said Bhandare, who is also the founder and chairman of AKP Foundries.
“The turnover would have been much higher, but for a 30 per cent reduction in business due to the economic slowdown in the last two years,” he said.
The BFC is also equipped with a common testing laboratory, tool room facility, effluent treatment plant, simulation software to help units to get ‘first time right casting’, ERP software, training hall and product display centre.