IMME 2010 : Showcasing Total Equipment Solutions

At the 10^th International Mining and Machinery Exhibition (IMME) Kolkata, exhibitors showcased assorted products by displaying their existing and new launches. Not to mention, heightened business confidence was shared by the exhibitors and visitors alike. P.P.Basistha reports.

IMME-Kolkata held at Salt Lake Stadium between 10^th-13^th November 2010 was all about showcasing total equipment solutions by equipment manufacturers who participated in the event. Total equipment solutions were showcased coinciding with the emerging demand from the construction and mining sectors based on job volumes and complexity of the projects.

Stretching across an area of 55,000 square metres both indoor and outdoor exhibiting space, the event had international buyers and sellers meet accommodating 450 participants from 22 countries with over 230 companies displayed their products. Total equipment solution displayed at the event comprising wide range of earthmoving equipment such as tippers upto 50 ton of capacity, backhoe loaders, wheel loaders, tracked and wheeled excavators, articulate haulers, pick-n-carry cranes, blower motors, clamp shells, crushers and screens, vibratory feeding systems, conveyors, continuous miners, civil tunneling machines, bulldozers, heavy commercial haulers, surface miners, tyres, heavy earthmoving equipments, and so forth.

According to Mr. G.V.R. Murthy, Joint Managing Director, Tractors India Private Ltd (TIPL)-the 100% subsidiary of TIL looking after the Caterpillar business of construction, mining and power systems, 'IMME has truly earned international standards and is a great platform to disseminate awareness among customers. IMME 2010 offered us a great opportunity to meet large number of customers who were focused on mining and construction and also keen for knowledge and cutting edge technology." IMME 2010 was an ideal platform for TIL to interact with our existing and potential new customers, to address their changing requirements with wide product variants from Caterpillar's stable coupled with our customized service portfolio. Mr. Murthy also observed that the demand fundamentals are well expected to remain robust from the construction and mining sectors. This would be dovetailed with requirements of equipment that would cut down on owning and operating costs in construction and mining sector. TIPL along with GMMCO jointly participated at the event with Caterpillar.

Sandvik participated in the event with a motto of creating a personalised touchpoint for the customers via its booth. As per Mr. Shib Bhowmick, President-Sales, Sandvik Mining & Construction, "Ours is a global company spread across 130 countries.Our products are launched  and marketed globally. We look at IMME as an excellent platform  to meet our customers, vendors and other stakeholders. Through this event Sandvik showcased latest Mining technology from Sandvik, latest equipments for Mining industry, underground cutting tools, continuous mining et al. The customer footfalls and feedback was fantastic.

Customer interaction and brand building was also the focus of Atlas Copco. The company displayed wide range of cutting and drilling tools and underground mining solutions.

Total Solutions in Earthmoving

Knowledge sharing with customers was dovetailed with some equipment manufacturers participating at IMME 2010 by extensively showcasing their product variants. According to Mr. Vipin Sondhi, Managing Director and CEO, JCB India Limited, "footfalls at the event is getting better year by year with enhanced visiting who have dissimilar requirement. This has facilitated us to showcase extensively our total equipment solutions." The construction equipment including its mainstay backhoe loaders, tracked excavators, vibratory compactors, 'Lift All' Pick n Carry cranes skid steer loaders, hydraulic rock breakers etc.


Elaborating on the total equipment displayed Mr. Amit Gossain, Vice President Marketing and Business Development, JCB India mentioned, "our motto to display the entire solution offering across various equipments class is to cater the application requirements of various contractors." Mr. Gossain revealed, "rigorous testing has been performed on its vibratory compactors and 'Lift All' pick n carry cranes by making them structurally rigid. This is so as to make them adaptable to Indian site working conditions and provide better equipment uptime".

Similarly, total solution was showcased by Hyundai Construction Equipment India Private Limited. However, the Korean construction and mining equipment major cashed on the show through launching couple of new products. Nonetheless, it took the opportunity to promote concept selling of the new equipments displayed.

Hyundai launched its new Robex series of 'R500 LC-7 MINING' 50 ton Hydraulic excavator during the event. As per Mr. Prabhat Kumar Tiwari, Head Marketing and Key Account, Hyundai Construction Equipment India, "the new 50 ton equipment features increased reliability through strengthened structures, high load bearing swing and undercarriage, higher productivity in overburden application through optimum reach of the boom arm. This can perform in all terrain working conditions. The optimum reach of the boom can undertake complete loading of the tipper truck body. (Complete loading would curtail transportation and dumping loss.) This is as because transportation is a major cost component in any mining and construction activity." He informed, "the equipment come with software for different modes. It has strong undercarriage along with reinforced boom and arm. Centre of gravity in the machine is adjusted to provide higher stability." R500LC-7 is available with Cummins engine and has bucket capacity of 2.43m³, 2.79 m³ and 3.03 m³. The rated engine power of the excavator is 353 hp (263 kw) @ 1900 rpm.

Hyundai also launched its Robex series, 'R220 LC-7 Rock' tracked excavator. As per Mr. Tiwari, "the 23 ton excavator with Cummins engine can find its application in granite, marble and aggregate quarries. The machine has reinforced frames, boom and arm with long and rigid undercarriage ensuring stability." Hyundai displayed its new '210LC-7 LR' 21 ton Long Reach excavator. The machine also with Cummins engine can find its application for various irrigation applications, ditch cleaning work, de-silting etc. The rated engine power of the excavator is 150 hp (112kw) @ 1950 rpm while bucket capacity are 1.03 m³, 0.87 m³ and 0.95 m³.

Concept selling was also promoted by Hyundai at the event through its wheeled excavators. The company showcased its new R 140 W-7 14 ton wheel excavator. Mr. Tiwari mentioned, "Wheel excavators are relatively new machines in India with applications for digging trenches, pipe laying and other urban construction applications where frequent mobility along with productivity is required. To meet the multipurpose requirements, Hyundai's machines are better worth as they can provide better mobility, less fuel consumption and increased productivity with its features." R 140W-7 comes with Cummins engine with rated engine power of 113 hp( 84kw) @ 2100 rpm with bucket capacity of 0.58 m³. The machine comes with Dozer blade for leveling back filling and cleanup work and out riggers for operation stability during digging and lifting. It can be mounted at the front and the rear.

Korean major Construction & mining equipments manufacturer, Doosan Infracore India Pvt Ltd., apart from its Ingersoll Rand Range of compressors, Light Source & Bobcat Products, also showcased its heavy Excavators upto 50T capacity. The company also exhibited higher range of Articulated Wheeled Loader to show 'one stop shop' against all the construction & mining equipment requirements.

The company also displayed its newly introduced product at the show for the Indian market, Doosan Moxy 36 ton articulate dump truck imported from its Norway plant. According to Mr. H.S Mohan, Chief Operating Officer, Doosan Infracore India, "the articulate dumpers are capable of running at high speed under difficult terrain conditions owing to the flexible axle features." Mr. Mohan explained, "Doosan Moxy articulated dump trucks  have  6 wheel drive for equal power distribution while the free swinging rear tandem bogie and special articulation system offer excellent driving performance. The articulation hinge is positioned behind the turning ring to ensure equal weight distribution. Many Doosan Moxy trucks have been designed to work over higher number of hours in its life cycle with speed & productivity. The machine fitted with Scania Engine has excellent track record on performance & reliability.

Assorted earthmoving solutions were highlighted by Liugong India Private Limited. The Chinese equipment manufacturing major displayed its CLG 936D, 36 ton Hydraulic tracked excavator with latest innovations. The company displayed its other capacity of tracked excavators and motor graders too. Informing about the 36 ton excavator Mr. Sunil Sapru, President, Liugong India Limited said, "components in the CLG 936 D are from manufacturers of world repute with hydraulics from Kawasaki, engine from Cummins, UK and cylinder from Kayba Japan makes the machine deliver optimum productivity." He said that 45% of localization of Liugong's wheel loader has been completed for the Indian market. The company is taking support from its R&D wing to localize the products and make them better adaptable to Indian conditions." He said that the company is currently utilizing the capacity at its Pithampur plant at the level of 45%. Vendor identification - supply chain management is in full stream to further utilize the capacity of the plant and provide cost benefit to customers. As we believe in the trust our shareholders have in us we endeavour to provide the best solutions to all our end users & optmise the project cost to have WIN-WIN.

Total equipment solutions were further reinforced by equipment distribution major DOZCO (India) Private Limited at the event. According to Mr. Sandeep Bangur, "being a distribution and service company our strategy remains to cater to the emerging customer requirements in construction and mining sector. This is being undertaken by entering into new distribution alliances."

DOZCO has recently entered into a distribution tie up with Terex, Italy for marketing its rough terrain cranes in India.


DOZCO has also entered into a distribution alliance with Furukawa, Japan for selling its rock drill in Indian market & introduced Down the hole drills.

The company forayed into material handling by entering into a marketing tie up with Manitou, France for promoting its tyre handlers  a year back & with GEHL of USA for sales of skid steer loader.

DOZCO has formed a new entity, DOZCO Infratech Pvt. Ltd. Mr. Bangur informed, "the new entity is undertaking turnkey jobs through equipment offering. Besides, equipment rental is also a business area of the new arm."

Value on Crushers & Screens

Brand building by offering total equipment solutions was also a focus area for Voltas Limited. The company highlighted information on its newly manufactured wheel crushing plants and distributed tracked mobile plants belonging to Powerscreen. Information dissemination and customer interaction was also about distribution of products involving Terex articulate dump trucks, Letournea wheel loaders. According to Mr. Somen Chattejee, Head Marketing & Field Operation, Crushing & Screening, through our wide product range, we would offer total equipment solutions to customers and through our pan India network we have been able to promote our own 60 wheeled plants and 900 Powerscreen products in mining / aggregate belts across the country. To make customer focus more effective for enhanced equipment and parts availability, we are in the process of evaluating our strength and weaknesses, belief in living/postioning ourselves closer to job sites. Similar views were echoed by Mr. Milind Anjankar, Deputy General Manager-Construction Equipment Voltas.

According to Mr. Aniruddha Moharir, Divisional Manager -Cranes, Voltas, "to ensure equipment availability, Voltas is in the process of manufacturing pick-n-carry cranes." It manufactures its own rough terrain cranes and distributes Kobelco rough terrain and hydraulic crawler cranes in India. Mr. Moharir said that the potential customer interaction was a key for company at IMME.

Customer focus was key behind participation of Terex Finlay in the event. The company displayed its Finlay J-1175 tracked crusher indigenously manufactured at its Hosur plant near Bangalore. As per Mr. Nigel Irvine, Sales Director for Terex Finlay, "the display of Finlay J-1175, manufactured in India highlights our commitment to our customers in the domestic market." Finlay J-1175 as a primary stage crusher has an output capacity of over 300 tph. He said, "the model which comes with a Caterpillar engine boasts of fully hydraulic closed side settings to minimize downtime. The other features include high powered hydrostatic drive for precise chamber controls and reverse functionality for clearing blockages and assisting in demolition and recycling applications."


Mr. Irvine added, our Hosur plant also manufactures the C-1540 secondary cone crusher having an output of over 200 TPH, and in addition also manufactures the Finlay 683 inclined screen, having an output of 300 tph-500 tph. He said that the Hosur plant would manufacture additional packages of products, consisting of further jaw crushers, cone crushers and dry screens.

Customer interaction along with new product launches by other manufacturers remained the hallmark at the event. Puzzolana Machinery Fabricators displayed its newly launched coal mining feeder breaker at the show. The feeder breaker would be finding its application at open cast coal mining. "The coal mining feeder breaker is capable of bringing the size of the coal feed from 1000 mm to the range of 200 mm - 150mm.  Ideally to be used in open cast mining, the feeder breaker could cut down on feed size of the coal thus facilitating easy transportation of coal through conveyors. The equipment would greatly facilitate in reducing ash content for the coal used at thermal power plants, said Mr. V.Venkataramana, Vice Presi- dent, Puzzolana." He added, "the PFB 200 comes with a crushing capacity of 500 tph with an output product size of 200mm -150mm. The equipment comes with drag chain conveyor involving pull on conveyor of 17 tons and conveyor breaking load of 85 tons. The machine has ergonomic cabin with full fledged control and emergency stop for clear visibility of crushing zone with all side glass."

Hyderabad based Puzzolana showcased its other product solutions at IMME pertaining to secondary sizer. Mr. Venkataramana said that Puzzolana sizer incorporates the basic concept of double roll crusher with dual directional rotation. These can be used for primary and secondary crushing for soft and medium hard and soft  materials like coal, gypsum, and bauxite. The sizer delivers well sized output size of 50/60mm greater than 95% thereby saving cost and losses. This will reduce the ash content because exposure of more faces while washing. The company is planning slew of new product solutions in the near future to consolidate its position further as a total equipment solution provider to the construction and mining sector.

New range of crushing equipments are also planned to be launched by CDE Asia. As per Mr. Manish Bhartia, Managing Director, CDE Asia India, "we are planning to launch 1000 TPH wheeled crushers through technical collaboration with Diemme of Italy. The product would be offered as a package to customers with our washing plants and would be manufactured at the company Howrah plant near Kolkata."

New crushing solutions are also being provided by Eastern India based Torsa Machines. The new product line is 100tph combo plant. Managing Director, Torsa Machines, Mr. Gopi More revealed, the company is in the process of expanding its operation at Amingaon.

Total crushing solutions were also displayed by Nawa Engineers and Consultants private Limited. Hyderabad based Nawa highlighted information on its wide range of wheeled and static crushers at the event.

Tippers Make a Mark

Tipper truck variants were displayed by manufacturers with equal zeal. Kamaz Vectra displayed its multi axle 6540 tippers belonging to the rock body and box body variants. According to Mr.N.Hemanth Kumar, General Manager-Marketing and Sales, Kamaz Vectra "we are undertaking research and development at our plant to provide multiple product variants for the Indian market as a broader initiative of customer support." Total product offerings were also displayed by Asia Motor Works. The company displayed its tippers and haulers for construction and mining application. Not to be left behind, Manforce displayed its tipper product range. The company displayed its ready mix concrete on Manforce Chassis. L&T displayed Scania P380 8x4 rock body tipper. It has recently formed a marketing alliance with Scania of Sweden for distributing its products in India. Russian manufactured Ural 3140 8x4 tipper was also showcased at the event. Ural India is based in Kolkata with manufacturing setup at Haldia.

Concept selling based on product utility was also the business intention for couple of manufacturers participating at IMME 2010. In accordance with this, Wirtgen India private Limited highlighted the features of its surface miners at IMME. Wirtgen Group manufactures Vogele pavers, Road milling machines, Recyclers, Slipform pavers and Hamm compactors and Wirtgen surface miners. According to Mr. Ramesh Palagiri, CEO & Managing Director, Writgen India Private Limited, "Wirtgen has wide range of solutions for road construction, Rehabilitation and Surface mining. Before selling the product to the customers, we study the project site & understand the customer's requirements and then offer the optimum solution from our vast range of equipments. Our products are specialized products. To promote the products, we have a specialized technical sales team that gets involved with the customer from project award stage to the complete execution stage." He said "Wirtgen's intention to participate at IMME was to highlight the concept of Surface mining technology." Highlighting the features of Wirtgen surface miners Mr. Santosh Rao, DGM South & East, Wirtgen India said that our surface miners are of superior variants that have their application for selective mining. These machines replace the job of Drilling, blasting, Loading and primary stage of crushing in one go. This is the most environmentally friendly way of open cast mining. It can undertake selective mining without mixing up the material. Wirtgen surface miners come at a range of 1000tph-3000tph.

Features of existing and new products offering along with requisite application were highlighted by Revathi Equipments Limited (REL). Mr. M. Sunil Associate Vice President (Marketing) Construction equipment division informed, "REL has entered into a technical and marketing collaboration with Tescar of Italy during September for marketing its range of hydraulic piling rigs in India. We are in the process of evaluating the market demand trend for Mini piling rigs. Based on the market feedback, we would customize the product for the Indian construction sector." Highlighting the application areas of the piling rigs Mr. L.S. Sashi Prakasha, Vice President, Business Unit Head, Drilling Equipment Division said, "the Tescar piling rigs can revolutionize the way small piles are presently done in the country. It is sure to find many applications in Railway Projects, Solar Farms and Industrial constructions as well".

REL also has entered into a distribution tie up with Chowa Kogyo of Japan for marketing its hydraulic Vibrohammer in India. Mr Sashi Prakasha said, "the power packs for the Vibrohammer would be sourced from India with engines either from Kirloskar or Cummins."

"REL which manufactures concrete pumps  in technical collaboration of Waitzinger of Germany, is set to  launch the Truck Mounted Boom Placers of Boom length 36/37 meters.  With a Full Liner in Concrete equipment backed by German technology, REL is eyeing high growth with focus on customer support and higher uptime of its equipment "informed Mr. Sunil.

"Allison Transmission showcased its 3000 & 4000 series transmissions in the recently concluded 10^th International Mining & Machinery Exhibition (IMME) in Kolkata. These transmission models are extensively used on heavy dump trucks and articulated trucks for construction and on-off highway/ mining operations across the world. Allison fully-automatic transmissions offer the benefits of full power shifting and torque converter operation, which deliver much superior performance, safety and efficiency, leading to greater fleet productivity and more profitable operation of the fleet.

Highlighting the superior attributes of Allison Trans- mission automatic transmissions, Mr. Ram Amarnath, MD-Allison Transmission India Pvt Ltd said, "With Allison fully-automatic transmissions, productivity of trucks can be substantially enhanced, besides also providing better lifecycle value."

Allison Transmission Inc. is the world's largest provider of commercial duty automatic transmissions and hybrid propulsion systems. Our products are specified by over 250 of the world's leading commercial vehicle manufacturers and used in many segments such as construction, on-off highway, mining, distribution, refuse, fire, military & specialty applications, city buses, airport coaches & services.

The Allison business was founded in 1915 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA and  today we have a global presence in 80 countries. More recently, Allison Transmission India Pvt. Ltd was setup in 2007 with a state-of-art manufacturing plant in Chennai and an office in Delhi to handle Marketing, Sales & Service and Application Engineering.

While the first Allison Transmission came into India over 40 years ago in imported equipments for the oil & gas and coal sectors, the current population of Allison Automatics is now well spread over India. We have about 6,000 heavy duty fully-automatic Allison-engineered transmissions performing duty in various mining sectors; coal, iron ore etc, and over 5,000 units in the city bus segment across 15 cities.

Allison Transmission India is committed to working towards expanding its services across all market sectors, and providing an unmatched automatic experience. With dedicated support staff, our India office is committed to support our customers and meet the demanding needs of this emerging market."

Valvoline Cummins Limited, one of the largest private players in lubricant industry in India, highlighted the attributes of its various products during IMME 2010 event. Informing on the collaboration with Cummins Mr. Akhilesh Mishra, Segment Manager-Construction & Mining mentioned that  "Valvoline, which is part of the Ashland Inc, a US based MNC, has a strategic tie-up with Cummins India Ltd. in a 50: 50 joint venture. The joint venture with Cummins was formed in 1998 and has since grown enormously to now claim the space as the second largest independent foreign lubricant brand in India. After the success of the Indian experience, similar JV's have now also been established in Brazil, Argentina and China. However, the relationship between Cummins and Valvoline is a truly global because in countries where there is no JV, there too Cummins recommends only Valvoline."

Informing about the products by Valvoline and its collaboration with Cummins, Mr. Mishra mentioned, "ours is a unique collaboration since right from the conception stage both the engine maker and the lubricant manufacturer are able to pool in their world wide experiences and expertise to arrive at a product which is technologically the most superior in the market. No other lubricant manufacturer in the world can claim to have this privilege.". It is no surprise then that Valvoline is the exclusive approved lubricant manufacturer for such latest innova- tions like the Tata World Truck.

In the Construction and Mining segment, Valvoline has a range of products to cater to all the requirements – this includes the iconic Premium Blue range of Engine Oils and other products such as Hydraulic oils, transmission oils, gear oils, greases, etc. In addition Valvoline has other products in range such as specialties and rust preventives etc.

As Mr. Mishra elaborated, " we have used IMME to launch our latest and most advanced engine oil range Profleet 10W-40. This is a fully synthetic, high drain interval engine oil and can extend drain intervals up to three to four times depending on OEM recommen- dation. For the present the product is targeted at Scania and Mercedes / Daimler  trucks, both of which approve this product. This reattests our philosophy of providing to the India  market the latest and the most advanced technology – at par with the rest of the world."

Mr. Mishra was confident that with the latest product in portfolio Valvoline would be able to further strengthen it's leadership position in the engine oil market space. Looking at the way Valvoline has performed in the last few years, it seems, his confidence is well placed.

With wide range of equipment displayed by manufacturers, IMME 2010 was a show for highlighting total equipment solutions. It was a platform for concept selling, equipment integration to derive equipment uptime. However, the key would be to make the projects materialize in construction and mining sectors as they would lead to the deployment of the new equipment at the job site for their requisite applications.