Company Profile

Siraj N Gangardiwala of Pune is a well-travelled man. Now of course he often goes to China, Japan, The US, The UAE, Germany, Australia, and, so on either to visit trade fairs and know more about the global automotive market, as well as gain insights into new technologies or simply to take a pleasure break.

Earlier though, after he had oftained a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Dahod in 1970, he travelled from his native place in Gujrat across Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra to look for job opportunities and gain valuable experience in the only field he understood and had a passion for automotive engineering.

That finally brought him to Thane where he worked with manufacturers of mechanical actuators, gearboxes, scre jacks, rod bending, machines and rod cutting machines.

"That was one place where I learned the ABC of engineering ang got an overview of how an entire process takes place - from the drawing board to the final product", Siraj recalls. In 2002 through, the itch to turn into an entrepreneur beacome so strong that he resigned and came to Pune to set up his own unit, called Husiraz Engineering to make brake liner fittings for commercial vehicles. "We started making couplings for hydraulic liners, especiaaly used for trucks."Siraj says, Fortunately for him, the first client who found his products perfect for their assembly operations was Tata Motors. And since then, Tata Motors has been their primary client, followed by Eicher Motors and Others.

"It is not as if there weren't other companies making pipe couplings for brake liners. What put the deal in our favour was that we were strict about quality and finishing, understanding the fact that any deviation from the customised or standardised dimensions could prove dangerous because leaks in hydraulic braking system could lead to brake failure in a critical situation. That is what our clients liked about us," says the founder's son Hussain Gangardiwala, who joined the factory soon after getting a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering degree from Vidyapeeth College of Engineering in Pune. Together, they are managed to increase their outlay in just 10 coupling making machines more than 40.

Elaborating about the technical effects of their couplings, Hussain Engineers, "We manufacture this product in three types according to DIN 53 - very light, light and heavy. For particularly couplings, higher pressures, we can customise per the client's requirements. We wide absolute reliability for HEP pipe couplings og steel for steel pipes, brass copper pipes etc. These pipe couplings are used for pneumatic items, hydraulic runback systems, commercial and passenger vehicles, small-type refrigerating machines, synthetic piping, etc.

Our product portfolio comprises straight couplings, equal elbow couplings, straight bulkhead couplings, equal tee couplings, equal cross couplings, welding coupling, breakaway couplings, non-standard couplings, and so on."

Over the years, the company has started supplying couplings for the replacement market also and it receives regular orders not only from Pune but also from cities like Jamshedpur, Lucknow, Delhi, Dewas, Indore etc. "We make and supply in a wide range from 4 mm to 42mm and our products are known for their machining and hardening," Siraj says. These couplings are particularly in use now for nylon piping, the current trend in the automotive industry. With an installed capacity to make couplings in two shifts per day to reach a turnover of at least Rs 5 crore per annum, the current automotive downturn through has impacted Husiraz Engineers too.

Admits Siraj, "When the going was really good about three years ago, we had crossed Rs 7 crore in turover. Now there's a 30 to 40 percent Slump." Hussain though is optimistic about a change in the scenario. "The ban on both coal and iron ore mining was a big setback for automotive component manufacturers, particularly those supplying to the commercial vehicle segment. Now though the lifting of the ban may turn the tide in our favour and we hope to post better numbers in 2016," he says. There's also hope that the government's spending on ifrastructure development may gradually increase, which in turn will boost the CV industry's performance.

The company is already geared up for expansion if required. "We have the space to install 10-20 more machines," Hussain says.

Jumping directly to BS VI norms can cause safety problems, says SIAM

Skipping the BSV emission norm and moving directly to BS VI emission norms for vehicles could lead to major safety compromises in Vehicles. While the BS V and BS VI fuels are basically the same, the vehicular technologies are vastly different and have to be sequentially developed, tested and validated with each stage taking 4 to 4.5 years. that is also the reason why other countires have first implemented the Euro 5 norm and moved to Euro VI only after proper validation and stabilisation of the Euro V technologies, while the fuel was already available.

"Not with standing the lead time required, industry has proposed an accelerated timeline for introducing BS V to 2019 ans BS VI by 2023, as against 2020 and 2024 proposed by the Expert Committee on Auto Fuel Vision & Policy," said Vikram Kirloskar, President, SIAM.

"Vehicles have to operate as a complete system and emission technologies have a close linkage with safety as well as fuel efficiency parameters both of which are covered by other mandatory regulations of Government. So, while the enivornmentalists may look at emissions in isolation as standalone plug-in technologies, the auto industry and the gloabal technology providers will never put any vehicle in the market without properly validating the safety, reliability and the regulatory conformance of the vehicle as a complete system. there is no rrom for shortcuts and knee jerk reactions where safety is concerned." Kirloskar added.

The danger of compressing the timeframes is the risk of putting an inadequately validated technology on the Indian Roads, which will lead to safety issues in vehicles like un-intended acceleration or fires which may arise due to improper regeneration of the Particulate Trap. this could put the life of a consumer at risk. In such unfortunate incidents, the people of India will ask the question why the auto industry has introduced a technology on Indian roads without proper validation and does this not amount to negligence by the industry We would have no defence and the liabilities on the industry would be huge. This is not an acceptable situation for the industry.

Moving form BS III emission norms to BS V emission norms itself, improves PM emission further by upto 90% from the BS III level. Further upgradation to BS VI only offers an incremental 0-10% advantage in PM emissions, which is definitely not worth the safety risk involved in skipping the BS V stage.