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SHOPFLOOR VECV

As of January 1, 2012, the Volvo Group has been restructured to better utilise the global potential of its brands

and products within the truck operations. In India, its equal joint venture with Eicher Motors Limited (EML) – VE

Commercial Vehicles Limited – has since been working on the same philosophy. Synergies are being worked out

on many areas, with the objective of driving modernisation in the Indian commercial vehicle industry. Auto Tech

Review recently visited the company’s Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh plant to understand what innovation means

in the VECV context.

VE COMMERCIAL VEHICLES – INNOVATING TO BE FUTURE-READY

63autotechreview September 2012 Volume 1 | Issue 9

There is a sense of purpose at the VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) plant at Pithampur. New machineries are being installed and new test beds are being added to the R&D centre. Strategies are being worked out, and blueprints being drawn to ensure the company’s evolution of the next generation products are on schedule, and meet the objectives that have been set.

The company is making a significant investment over the next two years in upgrading its entire product range, right from the 5 tonne GVW to 40 tonne GVW, including buses. Its annual spend on R&D has been above the industry average. About 700 people in the plant – in various R&D functions, and in purchase or project management – are working towards increasing the share of technologies devel-oped in-house.

The truck cabins, for instance, are being developed at VECV’s Pithampur base, although there is an option of sourc-ing these from Volvo. For the company, this is a cost-effective strategy. In fact, all aggregates – engines, transmission, axles, chassis, cabins, electrical and electronics – are done in-house. The plant houses a cab weld shop with robotic welding, CED paint shop, and integrated testing facili-ties, besides a 100 % hot test facility for engines and a lean and scalable manufac-turing set-up.

Rajinder Singh Sachdeva, Senior Vice President & Head – Technology, VECV is the man spearheading this innovation drive within the company. We speak to him about the road ahead, and how inno-vation will lead to modernisation of the VECV fleet, and how it would chart its growth path in the market.

INNOVATION

At VECV, the mantra is to maximise value – giving better value to the customer without adding to his acquisition cost or the total cost of ownership. When the country was gearing up to introduce Euro III emission norms for commercial vehi-cles, VECV undertook a unique approach. Sachdeva explained, “We developed three technologies, say A, B and C. While A and B relied more on electronics, C was more related to the Indian needs. We real-ised that customers would find it very dif-

ficult to get A and B serviced. Customer preference for electronics is very low, and cost was also a limiting factor. The third technology – C – was mechanical based, but still could meet Euro III norms very comfortably, and maintain fuel efficiency as well.” This adds to the overall value proposition of VECV products.

Today, all VECV engines in the 5-40 tonne range are mechanical-based, unlike any other manufacturer in the market. They are cost-effective, fuel-efficient, eas-ily serviceable and they meet emission norms. This, Sachdeva said, is a good example of innovation being brought into applied research.

Prescribed emissions under Euro IV, however, can’t be met without electron-ics. VECV already sells Euro IV compli-ant engines in India, but that is less than two percent of the market. With pan-India implementation of Euro IV norms still about three years away, the company is working on innovations across multi-ple areas.

A significant innovation the company carried out involved cabins, which were to meet the stringent EC29 European norms on crash safety. A detailed analy-sis of the cabin revealed that during tests – where a 45 tonne pendulum was used to check the cabin’s crash worthi-ness – the cabin couldn’t absorb the impact as expected. The choice for the company was to design and develop a

completely new cabin.Instead, engineers at VECV R&D fig-

ured that to make the cabin stronger, they could use a composite honeycomb struc-ture for absorption of energy. Two honey-comb structures were added to the chas-sis, behind the front grille. During subse-quent tests, those honeycomb structures absorbed a lot of energy, and transferred the impact to the chassis. This innovation meant a minor weight addition of about 4-5 kg to the cabin. “This was an industry first. We were able to clear all the required tests, and today, all our products use the honeycomb structure success-fully,” Sachdeva said.

Meanwhile, the next-gen products to be launched by VECV in the 2015-2020 timeframe, would have a complete range of electronics with features like driver information system, cruise control, time to empty and distance to empty. The com-pany claims it’s prepared with advanced technologies, but it’s making use of such technology very selectively, and only where there is customer need. We are future ready, said Sachdeva, but are aware of the current requirements and infrastructure.

TexT: Deepangshu Dev Sarmah

PhOTO: Deepangshu Dev Sarmah

Rajinder Singh Sachdeva said VECV believes in maximising value without adding to the total cost of ownership

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