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10<br />
COVER STORY<br />
Destination Success<br />
The AC&R division was set up in 1962-63 to meet the<br />
growing demand of refrigeration compressors. Till then the<br />
market for these compressors was dominated by European<br />
and American manufacturers. KPCL has always made it<br />
a point to study any market thoroughly before entering it.<br />
Accordingly, we undertook market research of competitors<br />
and their products before setting foot in this field.<br />
We began making refrigeration compressors in technical<br />
collaboration with, “Grasso” of Holland. These were<br />
the times with great restrictions on imports. The tie up<br />
therefore was restricted to technology transfer. Having<br />
mastered the manufacturing and marketing of these<br />
compressors, the team led by L N Joshi felt confident that<br />
they could contribute much more in this field. This led to the<br />
establishment of AC&R projects group. This offered us the<br />
opportunity to cater to smaller as well as bigger demand<br />
levels of products in this market.<br />
Around the same time we entered the field of centrifugal<br />
chillers in collaboration with Hitachi of Japan. This<br />
boosted our turnover significantly. Between 1970 to<br />
1980, we completed various prestigious projects like the<br />
International airports at Delhi & Mumbai, five star hotels,<br />
etc. These centrifugal chillers were working with R 12<br />
refrigerants. However being harmful to environment, we<br />
stopped manufacturing these products. Bidding good-bye<br />
to such excellent business opportunities for the cause of<br />
environment conservation is indeed a mark of a visionary<br />
and socially oriented entrepreneur.<br />
The indomitable spirit of KPCians would not want to stop at<br />
just that. They realized there was a market for huge cooling<br />
plants, which used modern screw compressor technology.<br />
For this we tied up with Howden in 1984-85. We won our<br />
debut project in this field in 1986 from Kanpur based IEL.<br />
From then on we did not look back. I can proudly state that<br />
from the screw compressors installed in India majority of<br />
those working to customer satisfaction are of Kirloskar make.<br />
1997 brought with it another opportunity for us <strong>–</strong> UOP Inter<br />
Americana was in need for propylene based cooling system<br />
for their project at Jamnagar, Reliance (oil refining). This<br />
is the world’s largest grass root refinery. Till then we had<br />
not handled any project using propylene as a refrigerant<br />
but we were confident of our capability to successfully<br />
take the project to its fruition. Reliance deputed its team<br />
for inspection of our work processes and quality assurance<br />
procedures only after being 100% satisfied with this,<br />
did they place the order on us. Today we are handling<br />
prestigious projects for IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, etc where we<br />
are using propane or propylene as a refrigerant. It is indeed<br />
a matter of great pride that we have successfully faced<br />
competition from international players for hydro carbon<br />
based refrigeration systems.<br />
After successfully using Hydrocarbons for refrigeration,<br />
the natural progression was to move towards Process Gas<br />
Compression. We signed an exclusive packaging agreement<br />
with the erstwhile Cooper Energy Services USA now<br />
Cameron Compression for packaging their reciprocating<br />
gas compressors . We received our first order in 2003 for<br />
supply of high pressure CNG compressor systems.<br />
Today we are an established name in India in the process<br />
gas compression market. We are market leaders in<br />
CNG systems and have reciprocating and screw based<br />
compressor systems in our portfolio.<br />
Simultaneously, we were equally successful in responding<br />
to indigenization drive of Indian Navy. The major<br />
breakthrough in this field came in 2004 in the form of an<br />
order from Mazagaon Docks Ltd for supply of 36 nos Air<br />
Conditioning plants for Kolkata class (P15A) destroyers &<br />
Shivalik class (P17) stealth frigates of Indian Navy. In the<br />
process, we graduated in developing our capabilities to take<br />
care of the stringent specifications & testing requirements<br />
of equipment for warships & marine environment. We have<br />
set up test facilities for testing of Air Conditioning plants up<br />
to 1000 TR capacity on full load. We have met the demands<br />
of retrofit market as well in last couple of years. In 2007, we<br />
bagged KPCL’s single largest order (till date) of 80 crores<br />
for supply of 7 nos. 2400 kW capacity Air-Conditioning<br />
plants from M/s Cochin Shipyard Limited for installation on<br />
board new Indigenous Air Craft Carrier.<br />
Thus, it is that, the ACR & PGS division has become one of<br />
the biggest division at KPCL and is constantly progressing<br />
to scale greater heights. The division clocked a turnover<br />
of Rs 25 crores in the fiscal 1985 which jumped to Rs 265<br />
crores in fiscal 2009. I am sure that the ACR& PGS division<br />
will continue to power the company’s way to progress and<br />
prosperity.<br />
M P Behere<br />
Genral Manager - AC&R Projects<br />
Su<br />
samwad<br />
OCT-DEC_2<br />
014
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