Reaching
for the stars
Bharat Fritz Werner has completely repositioned its business and is
striving hard to keep up with the standards of global excellence, finds
HR Gupta
Technology
sector companies have put India on the global map during the past two
decades. It is now the turn of the manufacturing sector or the old economy
companies to lead the national growth. The world is already acknowledging
competencies of Indian design manufacturing capabilities that exist
in the country.
A fair judicial system, English as a medium of instruction and easy
availability of knowledge workers are the key differentiators in favour
of India. All this leads us to believe that India has the potential
of becoming a manufacturing hub to meet the needs of the global society
and be a strong competitor to China.
Liberalisation of the economy in 1991 affected the Indian machine tools
sector in two ways. The customers shifted to new and pre-owned imported
machines and the indigenous industry needed investments as well as time
to absorb the impact of these reforms. Several machine tool companies
like Formac, NC Machines and Excello shut shop. There are some companies
still struggling to find their new bearing. However, there are several
others, which have completely repositioned their business and are on
their way to global excellence. One such company of the old economy
worth emulating is Bharat Fritz Werner (BFW), located at Bangalore.
Commercial production at BFW started in 1964 in technical and financial
collaboration with Fritz Werner of Germany. The company has passed through
four decades of existence. Looking back, we can classify them as decades
of survival, revival, growth and repositioning.
The decade of survival, 1964-74, was marked by deep recession and the
company was acquired by the GD Kothari group of companies in 1966. “The
company was primarily managed by German expatriates and mostly depended
on Government buying,” recalls Senior Vice President, NN Upadhyay.
DECADE
OF REVIVAL
The oil crisis that
shook the world in 1972 did not spare India. The growth was limited
and demand on the management to revive organisations required careful
thinking especially in a controlled economy. A change of guard took
place towards the end of 1978, when SN
CUTTING
TOOLS AND TOOL HOLDERS
Cutting tools and
tool holders are critical and affect the tool life. The grain structure
of the carbide used gravely affects tool life. Several manufacturers
offer a sub micrograined carbide. This results in an increased structural
strength of the tool, greater resistance to chipping, and a greater
wear resistance as well. Though these tools appear to be costlier than
normal carbide end mills, the productivity increase justifies their
cost. A correct coating like aluminum nitride forms a protective aluminum
oxide layer on the rake face.
The effect of coolant is also important to understand.
When hard metals are machined, dry cutting is preferred.
Wet cutting invariably results in premature tool failure, as the coolant
never reaches the cutting zone in HSM.
Coolant pressure is also very critical; flood coolant simply does not
work. The tip fails due to thermal fatigue. The preferred solution in
cutting hard materials is dry cutting with air blast or oil mist..........
........CONTD
