Pune-based Chaphekar Engineering, manufacturers of cargo bodies for light and heavy commercial vehicles, truck applications, sheet metal components and precision tools and dies, has successfully adopted the cathodic electro deposition (CED) technology to set up a 100 per cent eco-friendly truck body painting plant. Inaugurated on March 12, 2013 by Satish Borwankar, Executive Director (Quality), Tata Motors, the plant works by the CED method wherein the truck body is submerged into a one lakh litre capacity tank containing environment-friendly water base paint. "Spread on one lakh sq feet, this is the biggest plant in India for truck body painting," a press release said.

Chaphekar Engineering was set up in 1958 by Y N Chaphekar as a die making unit which was expanded over the years to manufacture precision tools and sheet metal press parts. The company's main client was Tata Motors that gave the company an opportunity to make cargo bodies for LCV 407. Since then the company has designed and developed an array of bodies for the fleet of Tata Motors LCVs and trucks and its clientele now includes Force Motors, Ashok Leyland, Mach Force (Australia), Mahindra & Mahindra, Hino Motors, Coca Cola India, Mahindra Navistar, and others. However, a significant chunk of its orders come from the Fully Built Vehicle Division of Tata Motors that also includes the international business.

Operating from three plants in Pune at Hinjewadi, Pimpri and Chinchwad, the company started with making 200 kg load bodies and now makes load bodies of about 1 to 6 tonnes with an average production 2,000 cargo bodies per month. "Chaphekar Engineering has the distinction of having manufactured more than 2,00,000 cargo bodies so far with a design portfolio that includes more than 60 different varieties of truck bodies," said Sachin Chaphekar, the company's director. Some of the products that have been developed recently include flat bed trailer, tipper for 909, 1109 chassis, milk tanker, steering column assembly, hand brake assembly, front/side/rear guards, water tanker, crane mounting body, steering mounting brackets, etc.