Truck-making made simple
05 September 2006
A small-scale truck manufacturer introduces a new range of heavy-duty commercial vehicles. By Venkatachari Jagannathan.
Chennai: Thirty one year old Anirudh Bhuwalka, promoter and director, Asia MotorWorks Limited (AMW), Mumbai, over simplifies the truck-making process. He would probably describe the process as "simply zero in on the top manufacturers of engines, gearboxes, axles, clutch, cabins and other components and mount them together on a chassis."
Bingo! And you have a global truck.
Sounds
as simple enough as a child making a toy truck out of
plastic parts. That is precisely what Bhuwalka is doing
at his Bhuj plant. Sourcing mission-critical components
— engines from Cummins, clutch from Valeo, axles
from Arvin Meritor, gearbox from ZF, cabin from FAW, China
— he rolls out trucks with carrying capacities ranging
between 25 tons to 49 tons. With a localisation level
of around 95 per cent, the company's tag line says AMW-The
global truck.
AMW recently launched two models — a 49-ton tractor (the 4923 TR) that can be used as a carrier for steel coils, oil, steel plates, cement bulker, tip trailer and inland container, and a 25-ton tipper (the 2523 TP) used in the construction and mining sectors.
According to R C Mangal, vice president, marketing, powered by 235 hp engines these trucks enable faster turnaround, hauling higher payload and reduce the fleet size by nearly 30 per cent for a fleet operator. Further the 9-speed gearbox offers higher fuel efficiency that would result in lower cost per ton per kilometre — in other words higher profits per-ton kilometre.
