Vibratory equipment, used by many industries for solids handling applications, are designed to operate under heavy loads/impacts. In this interview, Kishore Bhole, Managing Director of Hindustan Vibrotech Pvt Ltd (HVPL) located at Vasai (near Mumbai), explains the importance of vibratory equipment for process industries and how the company is supporting the growth of manufacturing sector.

 

How is Hindustan Vibrotech serving the industries? 

We are one of the oldest designers and manufacturers of vibratory equipment and customised vibratory systems with an experience and service in a wide variety of industries like chemical, food, agro, pharmaceutical, minerals, plastics, etc to name a few. Abiding by our saying of “Transforming Urja (energy) with systemized vibrations”, we cater to several systems like grading and separating, elevating, sieving, feeding, drying, roasting and calcination. The products that are manufactured for these systems are circular screen separator, spiral elevator and horizontal conveyor, bin activator, roaster etc. Along with manufacturing stand-alone machines, projects are one of the niche factors in our scope.  

 

Who are your major customers?

With an experience of over the years, we have gained an expertise in the area of application engineering. We are constantly in search of need for vibratory equipment in different kinds of industries and customise our solution for their products, not having dependency or demand from any one particular industry. The products and solutions are in the favour of the industry because of less power and energy consumption and minimal product contamination due to contact with external atmosphere. A few industries that we worked with are pharmaceuticals, food processing (ready to eat and ready to cook, snacks, etc), agriculture, pigments, detergents, petrochemicals, metallurgy, and government institutes (like BARC, DRDO, HEMRL,NTPC etc). 

 

How is the market for vibratory equipment and system in India?

Vibratory equipment, which are robust in construction and very smooth in operations, are designed to operate under heavy loads/impacts. Like other conveyors, the equipment also work in unmanned conditions 24x7 throughout the year. Ample choices of material are available which makes the equipment to suit in numerous applications in process industry. These are designed to suit working environments of different industries. 

 

To mention a few examples, for pharmaceutical applications, these equipment are manufactured using stainless steel 316L quality of material and are provided with CIP/SIP provision. For food industries, vibratory equipment are manufactured in stainless steel 304L quality material with quick opening fittings at maximum possible points. While fabricating the equipment, utmost care is taken to avoid sharp corners, crevices free wielding, quick wash-down arrangements and practically maintenance free. For heavy loads like iron, ore, metallurgy, alumina, silica, sand, etc vibratory equipment are designed to work under heavy load condition and to bear heavy impacts. As per the product characteristic, some equipment are provided with liners. Almost in all industries there are applications for vibratory equipment in solids handling area. 

 

What are your plans to grow exports?

Currently HVPL is exporting to Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Madagascar, Mozambique, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka. We are in process of setting up office at Ghana to cater African continent and plan to open a branch in Indonesia. 

 

How is your company helping manufacturers to modernise and increase productivity?

To mention as an example, in food industries, like processing of onions, belt conveyors are widely used. However, major drawback of these belt conveyors is frequent maintenance problems due to wash-down, wear and tear of belt edges creating problem of contaminations to the customer. Auditors raise objections for such contaminations. In such applications, replacement of belt conveyors by vibratory conveyors is a right solution. Most important there are zero per cent chances of contamination. 

 

Would you like to share with us some of HVPL’s R&D activities?

Currently HVPL’s core being vibration for processes like conveying, mixing, grinding, elevating and drying, we are now under the process of developing high temperature drying (calcination) which is a proven concept and it helps in drying material at 950°C or even higher. 

 

Any plans to launch new products in coming months?

HVPL has started working on resonance grinding, resonance shearing, resonance mixing and resonance conveying. Using resonance method, power required is very less compared to traditional systems. We have successfully developed different combinations of loss in weight/ gain in weight systems along with vibratory equipment. 

 

What is the present status of Indian manufacturing sector? How can SMEs contribute to its growth?

India is a vast country having huge potential for SMEs to provide technically competent and cost effective solutions. In many process industries, SMEs are providing import substitutes which save foreign currency. Indian industry has started giving positive response to the solutions provided by SMEs, as they provide customised and cost effective solutions. End user avails excellent after-sale service as service providers are local players. However, SMEs need to provide much attention to the quality, finishing and aesthetics. In auto sector, most of the SMEs are using latest automated machines for production. 

 

In the initial stages, around a decade ago, Indian SMEs were facing severe competition from Chinese products even in local set up. Having made continuous improvements related to end product performance, Indian SMEs have managed to create their own image and reputation in the market.

 

 Under the new government’s scheme of Make in India, SMEs are also flourishing and contributing in making Indian economy strong. Due to this scheme many European/ American have entered Indian markets with local partnerships. This has helped the SME sector to improve quality of the products and adopt modern technologies and methods of functioning. Indian mentality has also contributed in upbringing of SME sector. In India, any end user expects service life of most of the equipment to be of minimum 15 years.