Sansera to make single piece crankshafts for two-wheelers
Sansera Engineering is setting up a new plant in Bidadi near Bangalore to meet the growing demand.
The Bangalore-based Sansera Engineering Private Limited, manufacturer of high-precision machined engine parts, is all set to make single piece crankshaft for two-wheelers. As it is a main part of the engine of the premium bikes, the company feels that the new product has huge growth potential. Sansera is manufacturing engine parts such as connecting rods, rocker arms, gearshift forks, crankshafts for four- and two-wheelers. Since inception in 1987, Sansera has been adding new products and customers every year. Now it has 25 customers and more than 20 products. “In India, premium bikes are on the increase and highperformance bikes are in big demand. It is to serve these segments that we are going to manufacture single piece crankshafts. The first samples will be delivered in the first week of August,” S Sekhar Vasan, Chairman and Managing Director,
Sansera Engineering, told Auto
Components India. “Single piece crankshafts are more suitable for higher performance engines. We have created a dedicated line investing Rs 20 crore to make 180,000 to 200,000 single piece crankshafts a year. Special machines are needed to make them. Therefore we are buying Orbital grinding machines to grind the pins. We have purchased the first set and placed orders for more,” he said.
Sansera will be looking at the domestic market for the single piece crankshaft but will gradually enter the export markets. Vasan said that they are in talks with their global customers for exports. In the domestic market it has already bagged orders for single piece crankshafts worth Rs 10 crore a year.
Instead of being a built-toprint manufacture, Sansera has started working on the design of the components. The company now receives statement of requirements and from that it designs and manufactures the components. It eliminates the practical issues that arise during manufacturing and reduces the overall cost of the components.
To become a one-stop solution to its customers, it is setting up a dedicated test facility. The testing centre for fatigue testing will come up in its Bommasandra plant in Bangalore at an investment of Rs 2.5 crore. Once it decides on the machineries, the centre will be ready in a year. Vasan said, “we are looking at setting up a testing centre for accelerated testing of connecting rods. We will have couple of other testings also in the same facility in the near future. We want to be a one-stop solution to our customers from designing the components, manufacturing them and finally validating them.” Once the fatigue testing facility is in place, Sansera will go into x-ray die-fraction for some metallurgical testing. All these tests will be done initially as per design verification and for the final test it will be fitted in the engine.
The component manufacturer also designs and manufactures the machines used in the shopfloor. Over 80% of the machines deployed in its manufacturing facilities are built in-house. The company designs and manufactures CNC machines according to its product requirements. Sansera has also developed software for periodical calibration of jigs and fixtures.
Carburised connecting rod
As the OEMs are working on lightweighting the engine, components suppliers like Sansera also are part of that initiative. The company gives input to the OEMs for using higher strength materials, which cut down the weight of the connecting rod by having less cross section. Recently, Sansera developed connecting rods with low-carbon steel, which is carburised and fractured for higher performance engines. By using this material Sansera can reduce weight of the components it manufactures by around 10%. Now the carburised connecting rods are exported and used in the high performance two-wheelers.
Sansera keeps adding 2 to 3 new customers and new products every year. Recently it has started production of drive line parts like propeller shaft ends, yokes and universal joints for passenger cars. It is planning to manufacture automated manual transmission (AMT) also. “We are actively
looking at AMT technology. Now we don’t have the technology, therefore we will either design or acquire some company to get the technology. Initially we are looking at manufacturing some subsystems and we are talking to a few AMT manufacturers,” said F R Singhvi, Joint Managing Director of Sansera Engineering.
New plant at Bidadi
In order to meet the growing market demand, the South-based company is setting up a green field plant at Bidadi in Bangalore. “We have new customers and products every year and all our plants are reaching full capacity. Therefore we have decided to set up a new facility at Bidadi near Bangalore. We have a 15-acre land and we will be building the plant in 150,000 sq.mt area. It will be ready in 18 months and all our new orders will be executed there. We believe that by 2020 we should be doing around 20 million connecting rods,” Singhvi said.
The component manufacturer is also supplying transmission parts to Toyota and Honda Cars India. Interestingly, Sansera is the first company to manufacture gear shifters out of forgings. It is exporting them to 3 countries. Two years ago Sansera forayed into heavy commercial vehicle business by bagging an order from Daimler India Commercial Vehicles to supply intermediate ring for their wide range of trucks. Soon it will start manufacturing commercial vehicle connecting rods for its customer in Japan.
Aerospace components
Sansera has diversified into manufacturing aerospace parts. The division that is entering its 5th year of operation is hoping to cross Rs 50-crore turnover. “We have taken the leap much ahead of others and are doubling our turnover almost every year. We are receiving a lot of enquiries and working hard to turn it into fruitful businesses. Currently we are supplying parts for cargo, seating and lighting systems and we intend to grow much faster in this division,” Vasan said.
Future plans
Last year Sansera recorded a turnover over of Rs 878 crore and this year it is targeting Rs 1100 crore. The company, which started its journey in 1987 by manufacturing rocker arms, has plants in Bangalore, Pune, Manesar and Pantnagar. In 2005, Sansera began manufacturing integral conrod and from 2008 it commenced manufacturing wide range of connecting rods like split conrod, fractured conrod and piston conrod assembly.
In the last 3 years Sansera has invested more than Rs 300 crore and this year it is investing another Rs 150 crore. Sansera is buying land in Gujarat but the plan for setting up a facility is still in the nascent stage.
Globally it supplies rocker arms to Honda Motorcycles, Yamaha, Maruti Suzuki and General Motors, and connecting rods to FPT Powertrain Technologies. It is planning to grow its exports business from the current 20% to 28%. Since the connecting rod is a niche part, Vasan feels that there will be more demand for it across the globe.