Ravish Madan, Director, Usha Hydraulics, talks about the company’s products and achievements in the field of hydraulics and material handling equipment.

Every SME has a story of a humble beginning. What is the Usha Hydraulics story?

The Usha Hydraulics story began in the early 1970s when my father after a long stint with an ordnance factory and later with a few well-known corporates, working on hydraulic equipment spotted an opportunity in hydraulic cylinders and hydraulic power units. Those days good quality hydraulic cylinders were all imported and he started developing these as import substitute and based on his experience succeeded in designing a few models which immediately won the approval of some reputed companies like Voltas, L&T and the national carrier Air India.

So how did the company enter the material handling business?

It was the logical way forward from manufacturing a component to designing the equipment. So in 1978 the company diversified into material handling equipment starting with hydraulically operated material handling platforms, scissor lifts and tables, etc.

When did you enter the business?

I joined the business in 1983 after earning my engineering degree but not before doing specialised training in hydraulics and pneumatics at the CMTI and Indian Diesel Engine Manufacturers’ Association (IDEMA), respectively. Hydraulics remain at the heart of all the equipment we design and manufacture.

What is the product range offered by Usha Hydraulics today? What are the applications?

As mentioned earlier the company stared manufacturing equipment in the late 1970s. Today we manufacture a wide range, of scissor lifts and tables; goods lifts and stackers; truck loading equipment and dock levellers; airport material handling equipment like baggage conveyors; hydraulic coil cars, high rise platforms, car lifts for commercial as well as residential complexes and parking lots, special hydraulics, etc.

All these products have wide application in industry from in plant material handling to loading/unloading of goods and materials, maintenance jobs in factories and buildings, overhead plant maintenance, streetlight maintenance, aircraft maintenance and so on. All our equipment is designed for safe, ergonomic operation, e.g., our scissors are designed to provide maximum stability and larger working area, compared to telescopic type equipment.

This is a crowded field with a lot of manufacturers. What is the USP of Usha Hydraulics?

While there are a lot of manufacturers in this field, our USP is specialised, custom-made equipment for specific applications. The mechanical and hydraulic design of the equipment is optimised by specially developed computerised software, and our equipment has the lowest operating pressure, which ensures longer life of the hydraulic systems. Also the heavy-duty rigid construction makes the equipment, engineered to perfection, heavier, which imparts stability in load conditions. There are many applications where standard products do not suit the operational requirements either in terms of the layout of the premises or the nature of the task. This is where we offer solutions by first understanding the exact requirement of the end users.

For example, our scissor table facilitates access on all four sides and is versatile unlike stackers, forklifts or overhead cranes. They can handle any weight from 50 kg to 50 T. The scissor tables are very easy to operate and can be controlled by single operator. The operation being accurate, these platforms can be used as a part of a sophisticated process control system or individual handling equipment, as required.

What about challenging assignments? products that have made a significant impact with customers?

We love challenges. For us, every application is unique and every order special. But even this being the case there are some products we have custom designed that could be highlighted:

* Scissor lift for handling paper rolls or steel coils
* Scissor equipment mounted on rails used for replacing heavy motors and generators
* High rise working platforms for various applications
* Huge synchronised lifts of 5 x 5 m with German make valves to serve as operators platform for vertical winding machines
* A 7-tonne bobbin platform supplied to a MNC in 1997 that is still operating at peak performance level
* Huge, 20-tonne capacity platforms of size 23 x 10 ft for aero engine testing
* Special lifts for packaging industry
* Equipment with flameproof electricals for offshore oil drilling platforms
* Large size and capacity dock levellers for loading containers, etc.

Besides we have also special requirements like facilities in homes for movement of physically challenged persons. The hydraulic upenders from Usha facilitate smooth tilting of materials such as steel coils, cores, box packages, mandrels, etc., to facilitate further use of material handling equipment like cranes and conveyors up to 25-tonne capacity.

The automobile industry – that includes almost all major global players in the Indian market – perhaps has made the best use of our design ingenuity to order material handling equipment for myriad applications – right from picking and placing, conveying components, assisting in assembly and even lifting cars in showrooms.

How do you see the future of this range of material handling equipment?

There is a vast scope as even today most businesses have a high dependence on manual labour despite the availability of equipment. It is not a question of total automation, but one of making things easier and safer for manual operators. Using such equipment, one can bring down absenteeism in the factories by keeping physical problems like backaches and fatigue at bay. But things are now changing and that is obvious with the kind of requirements customers bring to us.

Another problem is many plants are of old design and adapting these to modern material handling is not easy, and as a result a lot of time and labour is wasted on just moving the inventory items around. So there are challenges here to come up with solutions where for various reasons such companies are not going in for total design and layout changes of their plants.

We have a simple approach – if the customer specifies the application, we can provide the solution.