By IANS
Chennai : City-based machine fixture manufacturing company Forms & Gears is looking out for overseas partners, particularly in Europe.
Fixtures are machines that hold components and equipment that need precision machining. Forms & Gears is one of the largest fixture manufacturers in India.
The company’s managing director Reji Varghese said: “We have around 50 percent cost advantage over fixture makers in Japan and Europe.”
Unwilling to disclose names, he said discussions were being held with a couple of foreign companies.
In the domestic market, Forms & Gears hopes to get more orders for its hydraulic fixtures from manufactures using manual fixtures.
“Conversions have started happening now,” said Varghese.
According to him, despite being costlier than manual fixtures, hydraulic fixtures have multiple advantages.
Varghese said new companies or those expanding their existing production lines are buying the product.
The company has secured an order for 30 hydraulic fixtures from Eicher Motors, he said.
According to him, the company has also bagged an order from auto major Mahindra & Mahindra for making hydraulic fixtures for the new Scorpio SUV.
The company is executing an order from bulldozer firm Caterpillar for four-cylinder head fixtures and five-cylinder block fixtures.
He said Caterpillar would use these fixtures to make engines for the US market.
While machining work would be the forward integration activity, Varghese is not interested in that right now.
“We have invested Rs.40 million on a facility to offer cutting trials for our customers. We hope to get more orders with this,” he asserted.