Anticipating strengthening of demand for steel in the country in the coming months, Ahmedabad-based Electrotherm (India) Ltd, a leading manufacturer of induction furnaces in the country, has launched an educative programme both for its existing as well as would-be customers by showing how they could maximise profits.
?As we are going through a recession we think it is our duty to show our customers, both existing as well as prospective ones, our discoveries, designs and developments so that they can improve on their bottomlines,? said Electrotherm deputy general manager (international business) Bharat Tank.
Tank, who later interacted with members of the Adityapur Small Industries Association (ASIA), said Electrotherm had a strong R&D, with assistance also coming from Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science as well as IIT Powai.
Listed on the BSE, Electrotherm, which has since its inception in 1982-83 sold around 350 induction furnaces and heating & hardening equipment in the east of which around 90 furnaces are in Jharkhand alone, has an elaborate network of service centres.
Asked how was Electrotherm helping induction units add to their bottomline, Tank said it was basically by way of bringing about changes and improvements in furnace design as well as by bringing about an overall improvement in the technology at use.
?Induction furnaces being power guzzlers, if we can channelise power by putting in place a programmable logic controller-based (PLC-based) dynamic load manager that we have developed, one can easily expect to save on the energy bill by as much as 20%,? said Tank.
According to him, if an induction furnace unit had a power consumption of 10 MW, by using the PLC-based dynamic load manager developed by the company it could not only achieve the same output but also save 2 MW power.
Electrotherm runs a 3.20 lakh tonne per annum steel-making unit where all the gadgets and technology developed by it is experimented before commercialising it.
?We attempt to design an induction furnace suiting to the raw material (sponge iron or steel scrap) that is available around the place,? said Tank.
The company, which exports its induction furnaces to around 32 countries, had a turnover of Rs 350 crore in 2008-09 by way of selling 257 machines and is looking forward to achieving a turnover of Rs 450 crore in the current year by selling around 280 machines of various capacities.
Induction furnace technology of steel-making is said to have emerged in this country when the world knew only of the electric arc furnace route.