Wind power industry drives Electromech's business
Industrial cranes manufacturing major Electromech,has been creating tailor made sulotions to cater varied industrial lifting requirements. The company's recent venture has been towards creating solutions for wind power comonents manufaturers. NBM&CW recently interacted with Mr. Tushar Mehendale, Managing Director, ElectroMech Material Handlings System (I) Pvt Ltd on its new business venture and the range of customised projects it has been undertaking for the industry. Excerpts:
How do you foresee the demand of gantry cranes in coming years from the windmill manufacturing sector in India? Can you share the number of the crane units that will be required for sector in 2016–17.
Renewable energy sector has a great potential in India. Industry has witnessed a great revolution in windmill installations in the past decade, there is still a lot of work to be done in this area. Government is supporting renewable energy sector in India and has set targets to produce 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022. However, it has been predicted that wind energy sector might take a major hit, with the budget capping the accelerated depreciation (AD) tax benefit at a maximum of 40 per cent from April 2017.
Industry hopes that, government will reconsider the accelerated depreciation (AD) limit of 80 per cent to continue till 2022 to align to the government's target of 175 Gw of renewable energy by 2022.
We are optimistic about the way industry is heading towards, and look for a steady demand for wind mill cranes in coming years. Based on our estimates, we predict around 20% growth in demand for cranes in FY17.
Provide details of the gantry crane involving its lifting capacity involving the hoists, span that was recently supplied by ElectroMech to Gamesa. What are the lifting jobs and the loads, the crane is performing at Gamesa's unit for manufacturing the windmill parts. Is the crane working towards assembly of the nacelles, rotors etc?
Recently, ElectroMech achieved a new milestone by supplying its 5000th crane to Gamesa Renewable Energy Pvt Ltd which is a global technological leader in the wind industry. Gamesa caters to the wind industry that requires huge components that are critical in various processes and require cranes which are technologically advanced and precise to handle the sensitive components. Nearly 1000 components are being assembled together to make a turbine and placement of these parts is highly critical that requires high accuracy. After in depth study of material handling needs of Gamesa, ElectroMech customized an outdoor 150 MT DG Gantry Crane with a unique feature of 360 degree rotating motorized hook that is suitable to withstand extreme climatic conditions. This 150 MT capacity DG Gantry crane offers fine control mechanisms and has a span of around 20mtrs and height of lift of 19mtrs.
Are there any fresh orders from Gamesa for additional cranes. If so, what will be the capacities and span of the cranes and when would the units be delivered?
Gamesa being our existing customer, the requirements are ongoing and we at ElectroMech take pride in offering complete material handling solutions to Gamesa.
Different wind turbine manufacturers, have got their own individual specifications in manufacturing the rotors, masts and nacelles. Based on the specifications, the load and height configurations of the components also vary. What will be the nature of engineering customization, ElectroMech will be offering for its gantry cranes?
Our approach of providing complete lifting solutions motivates us truly to develop great customized products for our unique customer requirements. Typically while designing a crane, many factors needs to be considered like, load to be lifted, height of lift, long travel, cross travel, tilting application required, trolley rotating applications and any other unique requirement from customer for effective job handling. Based on the nature of material to be handled and the speed of handling desired, many advanced features like, sway control, shock load control, motion control, remote data monitoring etc can be used for effective handling of the jobs.
Is maintenance and service support to the gantry cranes supplied to the wind power parts manufacturers provided by 'Craneedge', ElectroMech's subsidiary for crane maintenance? Is the company carrying out fresh investments by hiring more people to enhance its service for the wind mill manufacturing segment?
At ElectroMech, our philosophy is to provide well engineered hoisting solutions and not just a crane. We do support wind mill manufacturers and all other customers with complete crane maintenance services like spare parts, modifications, retrofits etc. Cranedge, which is an initiative by ElectroMech offers complete service back up to ElectroMech cranes as well as cranes of other make. Cranedge ensures uptime, zero accidents and safety of cranes. ElectroMech has been investing in people to strengthen its business and support our customers. At present we have around 150 trained service engineers deployed across various customer sites and we would look to add more people as the business demands in near future.
NBM&CW May 2016
