Timken : Maintaining technology leadership in friction management & power transmission solutions
Q. Please brief us about company’s global reach & latest initiatives?
Timken India Ltd, a subsidiary of the Timken Company, started its operations in 1989, with a state of the art manufacturing facility at Jamshedpur. To cater to the growing market, Timken subsequently set up a manufacturing facility in Chennai in 2008. The Timken Technology Centre, Bengaluru, is one of the four Timken innovation and development centres around the world, which provides customers a unique opportunity to in the global pool of engineering expertise and latest technological advancements. It is part of the company’s vision to leverage technology and people to deliver a sustainable & competitive advantage to its customers.
The state of the art capabilities include customer application engineering, manufacturing technology including tool & detail design, innovation centre for detailed analysis, testing, metallurgy & new product development, and business systems development including global infrastructure support, IT & ITES. Timken is a global leader in friction management technologies and provides one of the most complete offerings of antifriction bearings in the industry. Timken provides friction management and power transmission solutions for many major market segments, including aerospace, automotive, construction, consumer, defense, energy, industrial equipment, health, heavy industry, machine tool, positioning control, power generation and rail.
Our teams of engineers and scientists around the world are dedicated to using everything they know about friction management and power transmission to improve our customers’ performance. Our engineers not only increase the reliability of Timken® products but also create designs that can set new performance standards. We refine processes and recommend improvements to enhance performance and improve value. Because our teams are located at technology centers in North America, Europe and Asia – as well as in our manufacturing facilities and field offices on six continents – customers have access to ideas and resources to transform concepts into reality.
Our Technical and Engineering Centers focus on specific products, materials and processes and concentrate on emerging technologies that span across a variety of industries and applications. Aligned with our business units, our technology and engineering centers are market driven, helping customers improve their products by enhancing the effectiveness of our products.
We have 9 technology and engineering centers worldwide at:
Bangalore, India
Colmar, France
Keene, New Hampshire
Lebanon, New Hampshire
Manchester, Connecticut
Mesa, Arizona
North Canton, Ohio
Ploiesti, Romania
Shanghai, China
Q. What are the market opportunities for your company’s products in India? How do you plan to position these products?
As India builds its infrastructure, I see significant opportunities for the Timken India team to further enhance our customers’ equipment performance through the application of Timken technology and skills. Over last two decades, Timken has built a world class engineering, design, manufacturing, sales and services capabilities in India. We are in an excellent position to provide our discerning customers with best in the industry end to end solutions (design to aftermarket services) with the team and capabilities we have here in Bangalore, Chennai, Jamshedpur and sales offices across India.
A good example is steel industry, where we partner with OEM designers and mill builders to study the application and suggest the right bearings and settings, manufacture these highest performance and highest quality bearings and then maintain it with our Milltec® services team. We intend to make these unique capabilities available to a broader range of industries and customers in India, broaden our product offering in India and in the process become their preferred power transmission and friction management solutions provider. We have in India a strong team of Timken associates who are well trained and well equipped to use the Timken knowledge, product and solutions to create superior value for our customers in India and also be a significant cost effective provider of engineering, IT and corporate services and Timken® bearings to the customers outside India,
Q. Is there any plan for expansion & new investment in India to cater the demand of the industry?
As Indian infrastructure develops and the industry modernises, I see tremendous opportunities opening up for the bearings industry in India. As we move forward customers will look for better and cleaner technologies and more value added services (like maintenance of equipment, reliability monitoring, remanufacturing) that keeps their equipment running longer and more efficiently.
Timken India will be able to better aid customers’ performance through the application of Timken technology and skills. Over last two decades, Timken has built world class engineering, design, manufacturing, sales and services capabilities in India. We are in an excellent position to provide our discerning customers with the best in industry end to end solutions (design to aftermarket services) with the team and capabilities we have here in Bangalore, Chennai, Jamshedpur and sales offices across India. A good example is the steel industry, where we partner with OEM designers and mill builders to study the application and suggest the right bearings and settings, manufacture these highest performance and highest quality bearings and then maintain it with our Milltec® services team.
We intend to make these unique capabilities available to a broader range of industries and customers in India, broaden our product offering in India and in the process become their preferred power transmission and friction management solutions provider.
Q. What is the top line product range & are there any plans to launch new products?
Timken friction management and power transmission solutions help customers operate faster and more efficiently – increasing productivity, uptime and performance in a wide range of applications and markets.
The top line product range are :
- Bearing Products
- Alloy Steel and Steel Components
- Power Transmission Components & Systems
- Engineered Surfaces & Coatings
- Lubrications
- Seals
- Motion Control Systems
- Training
- Remanufacture and Repair
- Maintenance and Reliability
The few products which are due for launch this year are –
Timken 6000 Ball Bearing Series
SNT and Solid Block Housed Units
Ball Housed Units
ISO TRB MBA (ISO Tapered Roller Bearing Matched Bearing Assembly)
New High Performance Grease
Ball Bearing and TRB MBA is to fill the existing gap in our product offering in bearings. Housed Units are new products that we are launching as part of our corporate strategy to be in mechanical power transmission industry and not just bearing suppliers. It is part of our motive to serve the entire value chain. High performance grease would be pioneering in the industry and will help us to serve the end users better by providing them with savings.
Q. What are the key technological trends that are driving the industry?
Some of the factors driving the growth of bearings market in India are growing demand for automobiles and auto components are one the major factors influencing the growth of the bearings market. Increased investment in wind turbines in India provides a major opportunity for market growth. Robust construction & mining equipment market has also facilitated further development of the market. Expanding railway sector boosts the demand for bearings in the market. Healthy economic outlook also stimulates the growth of the Indian bearings industry.
Q. What is your vision for your company?
Our mission, vision and core values guide our transformed company and will propel us into the future. This direction keeps us successfully working together, so we make the world a more productive place and deliver value to our stakeholders. We make the world more productive by improving the efficiency and reliability of the machinery that keeps industry in motion.
We will improve our customers’ performance and deliver unparalleled value by applying our knowledge of friction management and mechanical power transmission all around the world.
