Sanjay Jain, Vice President, AMCL Machinery Ltd, in an exclusive e-interview with Indian Cement Review, elaborates on the company’s offerings to the cement industry and the future plans to serve the industry better with a large number of cement projects in the pipeline.
Brief us about your company and its activities.
AMCL is the 100-per cent subsidiary of Hindusthan National Glass & Industries Ltd (HNGIL) since March 2008. HNGIL is India’s largest glass container manufacturer having six plants across India controlling 55 per cent of the market share and with a turnover of around $400 million. Our major revenue driver is vertical roller pre-grinding mill (VRPM) which is manufactured as per international standard and designed from our technology partner Nihon Cement Co Ltd, Japan (Taiheiyo Engineering Co Ltd, Japan). AMCL also manufactures positive displacement tri-lobe blowers with technology provided by Unozawa-Gumi Iron Works Ltd, Japan.
AMCL also caters to different needs of rubber and tyre industry with technology from Midland Tyre Machinery Co Ltd, UK; Kobe Steel Ltd, Japan; and Leonh Herbert Machinenunlagan, Germany. An ISO 9001: 2008 certified company, AMCL is equipped with highly skilled workforce to exceed customer expectations on quality and timely delivery.
Tell us about your manufacturing facilities.
AMCL is in the business of manufacturing capital goods for more than three decades. We have state-of-the-art facilities for heavy fabrication, CNC machining, assembly, testing, quality control, etc. The quality control department has all the latest instruments for quality assurance. Our design office is well-equipped with latest autoCAD software for adapting to the customer needs. We have our large reputed vendor base for castings, forgings, steel, heat treatment and non-ferrous items.
Can you elaborate on your machinery?
We offer vertical roller pre-grinding mill, tri-lobe blowers, bulk transportation systems and refractory gunning machine to cater the need of the cement industry through advanced solutions sourced from world leaders. VRPM is primarily used for pre-grinding of clinker and limestone for cement manufacturing. The pre-ground clinker is then fed to ball mills. This is a cost-effective solution to reduce energy consumption in cement grinding.
The capacity of existing ball mills/ tube mills can be augmented by 40-50 per cent with reduction in specific power consumption by 15-20 per cent with the installation of VRPM. This is also an ideal application for split location grinding mills.
Tri-lobe blowers are used in cement industy, iron and steel plants, fertiliser plants, chemical plants, textile and paper mills, water and effluent treatment plants, sugar industry, and food processing industry. The tri-lobe blowers have their advantages over twin-lobe blowers such as:
- Low-pressure pulsation
- Less noise and vibration levels
- High volumetric efficiency
- Low discharge percentage oil-free air
- Low maintenance.
The refractory gunning machine is an ideal solution for steel, cement, ceramic, refractory and many such user industries. We have designed and manufactured refractory gunning machine where online refractory repair is a critical requirement.
Advantages of these machines are: user-friendly, high productivity, low manpower requirement, short refractory preparation cycles, homogenous mixing, and easy mobility.
Which is the most selling machine?
The major revenue driver (70 per cent) for AMCL is VRPM and we have 27 various installations in India and three installations abroad.
The balance revenue is generated from tri-lobe blowers and special- purpose machines for rubber and tyre industry.
Tell us more about your innovations and R&D activities?
AMCL has developed two new models (Model 180-3 and Model 270-3) VRPM in-house to match different needs of small and large cement plants. These models are well accepted in the market place. Apart from this, AMCL also manufactures bulk transport systems in various capacities to cater to the industry needs of loose cement and fly ash transportation.
What are the services you offer for the cement industry?
AMCL offers engineering and design services to the cement Industry for grinding.
What are your plans on the export front?
Cement machinery has a very large market domestically as well as globally. AMCL is currently focusing on grinding solutions and very soon shall penetrate African and Latin American markets.
Who are your major domestic buyers?
We have leading cement manufacturing companies as our customers. ACC, Ambuja, Jaypee, Century Cement, Maihar Cement, Madras Cements, UltraTech Cement, Birla Corporation, Mangalam and Kesoram Cement are few of them.
What strategies do you adopt to expand your market share?
AMCL is looking forward to technology tie-ups with international companies of repute to manufacture dynamic separators and ball mills. With this addition in product bouquet AMCL will be in a position to offer complete solution for clinker grinding to cement companies.
With more cement projects coming up, what is your perception of future business?
We see a huge potential for VRPM in split grinding locations, where we are gearing up to provide complete solution. Customers prefer AMCL-make tri-lobe blowers over conventional twin-lobe blowers due to lower noise and vibration levels.
Are there any new products or expansions in the offing?
We are aggressively looking forward to prospective technology tie-up for dynamic separators and ball mills. We shall offer complete solution for clinker grinding for split grinding locations. We are expanding our manufacturing facilities to cater to ever increasing demands of the customers.
We are also exploring avenues to enter into industrial process fans market, which is growing in double digits. This business will be synergic to tri-lobe blowers and cement industry and power plants will welcome this as there is a short supply of industrial process fans with huge lead times.