Fasching plans to invest 10 mn euro on new safety belt facility in India
Fasching Salzburg GmbH, the Austria-based safety belt manufacturer, eyes the growing Indian bus and truck market. Fasching develops and produces safety belts mainly for buses, coaches, LCVs, trucks and wheelchair applications. It offers a wide range of safety- belts and specialises in twopoint, three-point and special belts in different versions and technologies like static, ALR, ELR and buckles.
Fasching’s global product portfolio includes automatic locking retractors, emergency locking retractors, two-point belt systems, three-point belt system, buckles, and special solutions like H-belts, bicycle tethers, fall protection belts, YoYo belts and five-point belt systems.
Harald Pessl, Director, Fasching Salzburg GmbH, told Auto
Components India that, “For the past 4 to 5 years we have been selling 60,000-80,000 seat belts in India. If we wanted to grow further, we need to have our local manufacturing footprint here in India. Therefore we are planning to invest around 10 million euro for a new facility. Setting up a manufacturing base in India will open new avenues for us. Currently we have only 1 manufacturing plant in Austria and India will become our second manufacturing location. To start with, we would target the commercial vehicle segment, especially buses, as this zone has huge numbers. We will localise every product and make the complete assembly of seatbelts, which will indeed give us a cost advantage and we would also be tagged as one of the local suppliers.”
Fasching plans to produce seat belts with technical inputs from the parent company and supply them to buses, mini buses and mini vans. The target group would be tier-2 and tier-1 suppliers. Around 80% of its supply will go to tier-2 suppliers and 15% to tier-1 suppliers and the remaining 5% will be balanced equally.
“We are supplying safety products to the customers. We will work with seat
manufacturers on how to structure the seat, position the retractor and make it function flawless. Unless we get the required, layout our seat belt will not function properly. As we sell the product of safety we need to double verify the things before going on with the order book instructions,” Pessl said.
Indian market is still at a nascent stage in adopting safety products delivered as a standalone feature, though seat belts are mandatory for passenger cars. But it would have been better the regulation was extended to buses, especially intercity buses, with a deadline for compliance.
The manufacturer highlighted that “Mercedes, Volvo and others are the players who could direct the Indian market to their set standards. We can only manufacture and supply the product. As an extended move we could explain our product needs with certain videos. The difference between two-point and three-point seat belts could be explained. During 2004-2005, the ratio of two-point to threepoint seat belts was 70:30. Today it is 50:50 accompanied by the European norms. Four years down the line, we foresee the same ratio to be 20:80 (Twopoint: three-point),” Pessl said.
In the near future, the company is not expecting any big seat belt business in the local city buses. But the intercity buses will be mechanised with seat belts very soon in India, he said. “Passenger car segment is not a rocket science for us. We have capabilities except for the pretensioners. But pretensioners are only for premium cars like BMW, Audi, Mercedes and Volvo. Small car segments do not need them. Though car segment is not going to be our immediate priority, we are open-minded,” Pessl said.
3-point flex system
Fasching also manufactures patented 3-point flex system that provides safety in every situation. The flex-sensor makes it possible to install the safety belt in an adjustable backrest by up to 27 degree. The special sensor compensates the range of strap occurs.
The seat belt major is also setting new standards with its tested 3-point belt systems in the area of personal safety. The 3-point belt systems offer the highest possible strap capacity of 2,200 mm with the lowest possible clearance. The multitude of tilt-lock sensors always offer space-saving installation in the most diverse installation situations and highest possible ergonomics and safety.
Buckles
Apart from belts, Fasching also manufactures buckles in different models like strap, wire and bracket buckle. The company’s wire and straight bracket buckles are available in twopiece, ultrasound welded cover or with its new mono-cover made from only one piece. It provides more protection from vandalism and extreme-use conditions. Pessl said, “To be able to guarantee the safety and integrity of our safety systems, our buckles should be used only in combination with a Fasching safety belt.”