GKN Driveline is setting up a new facility at Oragadam, Chennai. The company, which is a market leader in constant velocity (CV) driveshafts and has a presence in India from 1986, is investing Rs 115 crores into the new facility that will house a state-of-the-art test center and manufacture sideshafts (driveshafts). The facility is expected to go on stream at the beginning of 2008 and will have a capacity of 6 lakh vehicles sets, thus expanding GKN Driveline’s capability in Southern India. The company currently has assembly operations at Gummidipoondi, Chennai, and two plants in North India—Faridabad and Dharuhera respectively. 

Speaking to media at Mumbai, Ravindra Ojha, Plant Director, GKN Driveline, said, “We are a single source supplier to carmakers in India except Maruti and Tata. In 1995 we had one carmaker and made 4 variants. Today we have 9 carmakers and produce 28 variants. With more carmakers coming to India the product variants lineup is going to be more complex”. The Oragadam facility will produce 5 variants and 350 car sets according to Rajeev Dogra, Manager—Manufacturing Engineering (Project Manager Chennai Plant), GKN Driveline, whereas the next variants will be made in the next phase. The Oragadam facility will be completely operational by Jan 2008. Funded by internal accruals and spread across 15 acres, the new facility has the potential to expand to 1 million sets. “We are 41per cent supplier to Maruti, 29 per cent supplier to Hyundai, 5 per cent supplier to Honda and 11per cent supplier to Tata. The new plant will satisfy Hyundai’s expansion needs”. Stating that the Gummidipoondi plant posed certain restrictions to expansion, Ojha stated, “There is a lot of scope for expansion at Oragadam in the future. Our facility is located close to the upcoming Mahindra Nissan facility. Through this facility we are also looking at supplying to Toyota at Bangalore”. While GKN Driveline would be supplying driveshafts to the new Toyota Corolla that will be introduced next year, the critical equipments used in the manufacture of the CV shafts are being imported according to Ojha. “GKN Driveshafts are employed in Hyundai Getz, which is exported. GKN is involved in the Tata one-lakh car project. GKN R&D is involved in the project”. “We supply to most of the car brands. Our products are highly engineered and technology is our key element. We invest in new technology and are therefore developing new components that are lighter, more efficient”, Paul Dinwiddy, Communications Director, GKN Driveline, added. 

First company in India to manufacture sideshafts for front wheel drive cars in the 1980s, GKN Driveline plans to produce 600,000 vehicle sets by 2009 and 70per cent growth according to Ojha. Other than catering to Indian carmakers the company exports to Japan via its Japanese network to Mazda and through its Thai network to GM (Thailand). There is an initiative, according to Dogra, to supply forged components to Europe from India. The Driveline division of GKN is placed under the automotive division of the company whose two other divisions are offhighway and aerospace. In India GKN has a sintered metals facility at Pune. GKN, which started business in 1759 in Whales is no.1 in the world in the production of CV driveshafts and holds 40 per cent of the global market.

Texas Instruments Inc. has introduced a 24-bit audio codec that supports asynchronous operation, allowing the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to operate with independent clocks. The new codec enables designers to select the control method among modes of three-wire SPI, two-wire I2C or hardware control, depending on the application and system design requirements. Additionally, the codec can be internally set to synchronous mode where either the ADC or the DAC clock can be selected as the clocking source when only one clock is required. 

The PCM3060 has low jitter sensitivity and a high signal-to-noise ratio of 105 dB to provide great audio performance, even in asynchronous mode and for applications or clocks sources with high jitter. Customers can complete their audio system by interfacing the PCM3060 to a DSP such as TI’s TMS320C6x family of DSPs and to a stereo class-D audio power amplifier such as TI’s TPA3120. The new device also complements other products from TI’s broad audio product portfolio including line drivers, receivers, analog multiplexers, PurePath digital amplifiers and digital audio processors. In applications such as DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD recorders, digital televisions, digital set-top boxes and car navigation systems, audio signals often need to be decoded and encoded at separate sampling rates, which drives the need for an asynchronous audio codec.

The Design Automation Conference (DAC), the electronic design automation (EDA) industry’s premier event, will be held from 4 to 8 June 2007 at San Diego, California, US. This year’s technical program will feature 161 papers selected out of 713 submissions and is supplemented by eight special sessions, seven full-day tutorials, eight panels, 18 pavilion panels, and seven hands-on tutorials. The technical breadth of the program will offer insights and information on the latest advances in EDA for the approximately 11,000 attendees that visit DAC each year including academics, researchers, developers, designers, managers, and executives in EDA, chip, and electronics companies. 

This year's conference features an automotive electronics theme, which will be seen in special presentations and sessions throughout the week. Automotive electronics will be the focus of an all-day track. For example, a special session will feature presentations on aspects of defining, designing and using virtual automotive platforms to implement applications on shared hardware. In a pavilion panel that afternoon, presenters will explore the special needs for correctness and reliability in automotive software, and how carmakers and the research community are meeting those requirements. The complete program is now available on the DAC Web site at www.dac.com.

Bharat Forge, the flagship company of US$ 2.1 billion Kalyani Group and a leading global supplier of forged and machined components mainly to the auto industry, has laid the foundation stone for its new facility at Baramati near Pune. For the company, which has made acquisitions in the US, Europe and has a presence in other parts of the world including China, the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing at Baramati signals the entry into high technology areas like aerospace, marine and rail, power, mining and construction equipments. 

Speaking at Baramati, Baba Kalyani, chairman and managing director, Kalyani Group, said, “The techniques and technologies we are going to use are going to be advanced than those at Pune. Initial investment will be Rs 350 crores and the plant will have 30,000 metric tonne capacity; it will turnout of 100,000 machined crankshafts.” Stating that the plant will be operational by 2008, Baba Kalyani drew attention towards the fact that the markets this facility will cater to are niche sectors with considerable engineering processes involved. “We are putting one of the largest forging die hammers (that can produce 21/2 tonne piece of closed die forging). We are setting up a fully automated high tech facility.” 

For a company that has created a mark as an innovative engineering company in the auto sector, the move towards non-auto sector is looked upon as a de-risking measure other than expanding the addressable markets. According to Kalyani, “80 per cent of the products made here would be for exports, and a large part of the customer base is more or less tied-up”. While stating that the company chose Baramati as the location for the new facility because of its proximity to Pune, Baba Kalyani said further, “Our competitiveness lies in our engineering skills. We want to make value added products first. We will specialize in structural components (aerospace) like landing gears for white body aircrafts and struts. We could become a centre for landing gear systems. We want to supply a complete value added product.” 

Speaking about the high demand in power and construction equipment sectors, Kalyani explained that his company would like to establish itself in the area of high value products first. “Construction equipment is the easiest of all to manufacture. We have put construction equipment components on the backburner because we want to make value added products first. The demand for power and construction industry is huge. We estimate a 40 per cent growth. We could look at large casting, fabrication and subsystems for horizontal growth after we have settled in the business.” For the rail and marine sectors, the company plans to produce 10,000-11,000 crankshafts a year; large crankshafts that are 4.5m long. 

For the company, whose German facility manufactures railway patented tracking systems, the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing will be a state-of-the-art, world-class facility and will manufacture high technology, highly engineered critical and safety components for the respective sectors it aims to serve. While sources close to the Kalyani group pointed at the facility making critical heavy duty engine components like crankshafts, connecting rods, etc, the plant, which is spread over 100 acres would include forging area, thermal treatment, machining facility, metallurgy testing, etc, according to Baba Kalyani. The facility is expected to employ a spread workforce of 1000 to 1200 and plans to collaborate with engineering educational institutions. 

In addition to chief guest, Sharad Pawar, union minister for agriculture and consumer affairs, food and distribution, government of India, and Ajit Pawar, Maharashtra minister for water resources, command area development and water supply and sanitation, government of Maharashtra the function at Baramati was attended by dignitaries from companies like GE Electric and Pratt & Whitney.

MRF is ranked the highest in customer satisfaction with original equipment tyres in India, according to the J.D. Power Asia Pacific 2007 India Original Tyre Customer Satisfaction Index (TCSI) Study. 

In its seventh year, the study analyzes new-vehicle buyer perceptions of five critical factors regarding their original equipment tyres. In order of importance, they are: appearance of tyres, durability of tyres, ride quality, traction and handling. Customers are most satisfied with the appearance and ride of their tyres. 

For a fifth time (tying in 2002 and 2003), MRF has ranked highest in the study, improving its overall performance to 840 points on a 1,000-point scale — up 18 points from the 2006 study. JK Tyre follows MRF in the rankings with 822 index points, while Apollo (812) improves by 34 points to rank third. In particular, Apollo improves in the durability and traction factors. 

The study found out that overall customer satisfaction has increased 12 index points from 2006 to average 801 points. Improvements throughout the industry can primarily be attributed to increased customer satisfaction with the overall product. In particular, MRF and JK Tyre have increased customer satisfaction through tire improvements and new product introductions. 

Among vehicle segments, small-car owners have greater satisfaction with their original tyres compared to those in other vehicle segments. However, the average kilometres driven on a small vehicle are nearly 10 percent less than the industry average. The 2007 India Original Tyre Customer Satisfaction Index Study is based on responses from 2,500 new-vehicle-owners of 11 makes and 31 different vehicle models in India. Customers were surveyed between May and August 2006 at 12 to 18 months of ownership.

Tata Motors has expanded the long wheel base Indigo XL’s range with the launch of the Indigo XL Classic. The Indigo XL Classic offers a different trim level, while still offering more comfort and legroom than any of the other premium sedans. Earlier this year, Tata Motors had launched the Indigo XL in only the Grand trim. 

The new Indigo XL Classic shares several features with the Indigo XL Grand, such as the wood trim interiors, the new look AC fascia & instrument cluster, composite steering wheel, utility trays behind the seats, and a rear seat centre armrest with cup holders. Also available are the rear AC console with separate control, a chiller tray in the glove box, and one-touch power windows in the front and rear. The seats are now upholstered in premium fabric, and the front seats offer 6-way manual adjustment along with lumbar adjustment. 

Exterior features such as the dual beam clear lens headlamps, sleek tail lamps, front fog lamps, chrome embellishments on the satin painted front grille, electrically operated outer rear view mirrors with blinkers are standard, while the Indigo XL Classic comes with steel wheels with full hubcaps. 

The Indigo XL Classic is available with the same petrol and diesel powerplants as the Indigo XL Grand. The petrol variant is equipped with a 16V Twin Cam engine and churns out 101 PS @ 6100 rpm. The diesel variant comes with the common rail diesel DICOR engine that generates 70 PS @ 4000 rpm. 

The Indigo XL Classic 101PS petrol has been priced at Rs.5.35 lakhs (ex-showroom Delhi) and the 70PS DICOR variant comes at a price of Rs. 6.15 lakhs (ex-showroom Delhi).