Pune-based Bharat Forge (BFL), the flagship of the Kalyani group, on Monday commissioned its new fully integrated ring rolling facility at its centre for advanced manufacturing at Baramati in Maharashtra.
The facility is equipped with a 4,000-tonne blanking press, a radial axial ring rolling machine, which can roll rings up to a maximum diameter of 4.5m, maximum height of up to 500mm and maximum weight of 3 tonnes. The facility is also equipped with modern furnaces and a robot manipulator.
Slewing rings, flanges and gear blanks for the wind industry and bearings are some of the products that would be manufactured at this facility and would cater to the wind and thermal energy, defence, oil and gas, material handling equipment and bearing industry for domestic and global markets.
According to B.N. Kalyani, Chairman and Managing Director, BFL, “the commercialisation of the ring rolling facility successfully completes the first phase of our non-auto foray, which we conceptualised in 2005. This will enable us to achieve our target of having 40 per cent of our revenue from the non auto sector by 2012 from current levels of 21 per cent.”
In the first phase, over the last two and a half years, BFL spent Rs. 400 crore and in the second phase, over the next three years, the company plans to spend Rs.1,500 crore to expand its non-automotive business.
Bharat Forge has a trans-continental presence through more than a dozen manufacturing locations.
