Ultra Engineers was founded in 1991 in Pune, Maharashtra witnessing the tremendous opportunity from the growing demand from the machine tool and manufacturing industry.

Hard work coupled with innovation and technology has led the company to success. Today, Ultra Engineers is an established name that manufactures precision and high quality heavy duty metal components for both the domestic and international market. These products are used for specific application in industries like Oil & Gas, Energy and Power, Automobile and Heavy Engineering Projects among others.

Innovation & Technology

“Our company has always been in the forefront when it comes to innovation. We do not believe in compromising on our product quality and that is why always invested in the best technology,” said George Durai, Sr. Manager Production, Ultra Engineers.

George added, “Couple of years ago we had a requirement of Tool Presetter for setting up a Boring Bar. There were many other low cost alternative solutions that could have been considered. However, Speroni Team explained to us that apart from presetting, there are lots of other aspects that have to be weighed for our process. In the beginning we were reluctant as our primary focus was only presetting. But after a detailed discussion with the team we invested in Speroni Tool Presetter (MAGIS 600) and the results were phenomenal. It not only helped us achieve our primary focus but also eased the other processes.”

“After using the machine I can say the offset time has decreased and we are getting better output,” he said.

Speroni has throughout its 50 years of history always been a leader in the field of Tool Presetting and Measurement systems and has supplied solutions to the specific demands by the customer. Today the company offers a vast line of products and solutions in the fields of Tool Preset, Measurement and Management, and Quality Inspection of the Manufacturing Process. The company aims to develop more innovative products that will help improve efficiency in the shop floor thus helping its customers run their manufacturing more profitably.

“Speroni machine comes with various beneficial features, but out of all the features I would like to highlight an amazing feature that is of Machine Management. We have a blend of few old and new machines and with Speroni Machine Management; all our machine errors were compensated. It also resolved several of our machine errors that were made by the unskilled operators. Speroni Team has also been co-operative and supported us with its research based efforts right from giving us the solution to select the most appropriate machine till implementing the committed result. We are happy with our decision of investing in Speroni mchine. It is a matter of pride for us to have ordered India’s Biggest Tool Presetter from Speroni,” said Mr. George.

“Revolution happens in the industry, when two innovative technology driven companies work together,” concludes Mr George.

Headquartered in Noida (NCR Delhi), India, HEG Ltd. is one of the leading graphite electrode manufacturers in the world. Part of the LNJ Bhilwara group, HEG Ltd. was founded in 1977 with a vision to take India to the world map by becoming a top league player in Graphite Electrode and allied business with commitment to growth, innovation, quality and customer focus.

Today it has one of the largest integrated Graphite Electrode plants in the world, processing sophisticated UHP (Ultra High Power) Electrodes.

The company has come a long way and boasts of exports of around 75% – 80% to more than 25 countries across the globe.

With a mission to become a leading international player in Graphite Electrodes and related businesses, HEG Ltd. is leveraging is its core competencies and thereby investing in the best possible technologies and R&D activities.

The Process

HEG Ltd. undertakes its manufacturing process at their state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Mandideep, near Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. With the production capacity of 80,000 MT per annum it has the world’s largest single site plant of Graphite Electrodes.

Machining of graphite ELECTRODES and NIPPLES are challenging, given the brittle nature of graphite. In order to have precise threading cutters setting at the precision of 10 microns level, to save setting time and for tool measurement, HEG invested in Speroni STP 44.

“The process of extrusion is a initial stage of Graphite electrode manufacturing. It goes through various stages like  baking, impregnation  and graphitization process. After graphitization it is taken for machining,” said Venkatesh Babu, Manager, HEG Ltd.

For machining, HEG is holding world class SPM machines INREMA – a high-end machine imported from Spain is used. “We use Speroni’s STP 44 for cutter setting, without it the cutter tools cannot be set, align with in the required accuracy level of 10 to 15 microns,” added Venkatesh Babu.

The Speroni Advantage 

“We manufacture graphite electrodes and nipples diameter from 500 to 750 diameters. By using the Speroni machine we get good quality output i.e electrodes and nipples.

Our products are put into 3D CMM testing also and passes through all the required parameters. This high tech Speroni tools setting machine is so simple and user friendly, initially felt very complicated and time consuming. Professional training  provided by Speroni experts, now within two hours each cutter is being set,” said Venkatesh Babu.

Job shop is one segment that is growing rapidly in India and looks promising. As various industry leaders look forward to outsource their machining activities from job shops, a lot more is expected to happen in this segment. One such company that is keen to deliver their best in order to tap the opportunity is Usha Enterprises.

Equipped with high technology and skilled manpower it is led by technocrat Mr. Prashant Shelke, CEO of Usha Enterprises, Kolhapur.

Located in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra, Usha Enterprises deals in manufacturing and servicing of centrifugal process pumps, chemical process pumps, acid pumps, water ring vacuum pump and chemical screw pumps in critical material like Stainless Steels & Alloy steels.

The company deals in various pumps and the material used varies as per the demand. According to Shelke investing in the right technology to cater to the specific demand created by the customers is their forte. This makes the tools used to machine any particular component become very integral.

To cater to the specific demand and provide best solutions to customers in minimum delivery time Mr. Shelke Invested & bought SPERONI’s STP MAGIS 600 model, a tool measuring machine.

The company started checking all the tools used for machining process using this machine. Earlier, the tool would be rejected if the geometry & accuracy didn’t matched on the component, but today with the use of STP MAGIS 600 only the right tool goes for production that further reflects in the end product. With the help of SPERONI Tool Measuring equipment the company has reduced cost on tooling and the Production time significantly. Also, rejections due to the tools have diminished.

Also Read: Providing Perfection & Reviving Confidence With Speroni Presetter

Recalling a special case when the company had to deal with some critical operation of Internal Groove with 50 microns Tolerance accuracy, Shelke says, “We wanted to do some critical operation with 50 microns of accuracy and were looking for cutter that can give us total runout within 15 to 20 microns on machine. Though our Tolerance was 50 microns, but the cutter accuracy requirement was below 15 microns. While trying out various brand cutters and inspected on our Tool presetter Walter could give us the dimensions we were looking for.”

Talking about the same for Walter tools Sanket (M/s. S G Enterprises, Partner) says, “Usha Enterprise was using HSS small size cutter with conventional methods by number of passes and inspect & re-inspect method. For making grooves of 6 mm width with 50 microns tolerance took lot of time, efforts, operator dependency & rejection chances. If the slitting was 6 mm width they would use 2 mm tool then shift it and check the size. This whole process was time consuming & no quality assurance.” He adds, “Once Usha Enterprises bagged order of 10 components that they had to deliver within 2-3 months time, they initiated talks with some reputed big names cutter suppliers. The reason being, the then existing conventional method and tool would have taken them 6-7 months to achieve the target. But no one could find the right tool to meet the desired parameter. They also checked all the cutters on Speroni machine and found that Walter’s cutter could meet the requirement of run out tolerance. Hence finalised the Order.”

Atul Vinchurkar, Deputy Manager Sales and Application, of Walter Tools India Pvt Ltd, in Kolhapur, who was dealing with the situation says, “Usha Enterprises mainly deal with the casing and pump industry where machining for any specific material & Quantity becomes challenging. Thanks to SPERONI STP MAGIS 600 tool measuring machine, which could show the difference between other tools and Walter tools. The run out of Walter cutter was within the requirement and cutter’s reliability justified the ROI.”

Elaborating further Vinchurker says, “The company would have gone with the low cost cutters if the SPERONI machine was not there, because the micron level is impossible to check using the conventional measuring machines. So even though our cutters cost them Rs 2 lakh they bought it and got the desired result of machining grooves in one pass.”

Having same views Sanket says, “If not SPERONI, they would have gone for some other cheaper cutter and would have faced various challenges during the later stages in Production without guarantee of accuracies & productivity. SPERONI Machine helped them recognise the right cutter to  achieve their target.”

The above shows that the right technology and adequate knowledge can positively affect your overall productivity. It is high time the Indian SMEs think beyond the cost and look at the bigger picture – the right investment today can lead to a brighter future in the future.