Universal Brakes (p) Ltd., part of the Rs. 2,500-crore apm united Group of Co-imbatore, is planning a tie-up with Frenos Iruna Brakes of Spain to manufacture hydraulic brake system components. The company has now undertaken, jointly with its Spanish partner, a market study to find out the feasibility of manufacturing compo- nents in India.
According to Mr. Nikhil Sunil, Director of the apm United Group, the company will initially market Iruna’s brake system components in India for wich negotiations are on with various OEMs. After successfully marke- ting the products, the company will decide in the setting up of the joint venture plant, which will most probab- ly be in Coimbatore.
Ssys Mr. Aquilino Legarreta, Marketing Mangar, Frenos Iruna Brales: “We are very keen to enter India which has alredy emerged a leading automotive player. Since most of our global suppliers, including Nissan, Renault, JCB, Trw and Volvo, have already entered India, we want to market our products here too.Basically, Iruna is a leading manufacture of brakes and clutch components for arange of vehicles of there to 10 tonne ca-tegories. With the strength of Universal Brakes, the company is keen to successfully bring its world class pro- ducts to the Indian market”.
Iruna’s technology strength
Frenos Iruna designs, develops and manufactures brake components systems for automotive and off-high- way vehicles mostly related to agricultural and public works like tractors, excavators, dumpers and forest machinery, among others.
- Approximately 15 per cent of the staff works in new products development and R&D. Furthermore, the company maintains a close co-operation with servral home technology centres such as Citean (www.citean. com) and UPNA (www.unavarra.es).
Founded over 50 years ago at Pamplona (North of Spain), Fernos Iruna owns new facilities in a industrial plot of 22.000 m². in 1970, the company statted working as an original equipment manufacturer and received the ISO 9001 in 1997. While it received the ISO-TS 16949 in 2002, the collaboration agreement with TRW for new products was signed in 2003.
It was in 2004 that Frenos Iruna entered into a collaboration agreement with Stop Iberica and Pierburg a new factory was set up over 8000 m² (22000 m² in total). The year 2007 witnessed introduction of the new CMC machine by the company.
Breaking the barriers
Established in1978, Universal Brakes is equipped with facilities to manufacture high quality hydraulic brake equipment for the automobile and earthmoving industries. The company team consists of highly qualified mana- gement and engineering professionals with more than 20 years of experience in the field. Each employee is fu- lly trained and qualified in his respective area of operation.
The company’s customers include Tractor and Farm Equipment Ltd., JCB India Ltd., Escorts Construction Equipment Ltd., Goel Tempo (P) Ltd. and Kerala Automoblies Ltd. The product range covers hydraulic brakes, actuating systems, brake service kits, automobile ancillary components for radiators, hydraulic brake cylinders for tractor applications, etc.
The company has a complete facility to design and manufacture high quality hydraulic brake systems. The equipment include the turning center, lathes, honing machines, fine boring machines, thread rolling machines, ect. It also has a rubber plant to make critical rubber components required in a brake system and has its own facility to inspect and certify all the components manufactured in-house.
As the automobile market in India is set to grow faster over the next few years, Universal Brakes is well placed to capitalize on the emerging opportunity. It plans to expand its manufacturing facility to include new CNC machines and inspection equipment to manufacture high quality products at low cost.