Aravind Melligeri, Chairman and CEO of Aequs, a visionary entrepreneur with a dream to turn India into a global aerospace powerhouse argues that the country will be in a position to make it big in the multimillion dollar global markets for aerospace products and systems only through building up of high end facilities and advanced technological capabilities.
The Belgaum based Aequs Aerospace SEZ (Special Economic Zone) is one of the few high tech enterprises in the country that has made ‘Make in India’ philosophy an integral part of its growth story. As pointed out by Aravind Melligeri, Chairman and CEO of Aequs, formerly known as Quest Global, right since its inception in 2009, Aequs Aerospace SEZ has been striving to build up capabilities that are either not available or difficult to bring within the country. The argument of Melligeri, a visionary entrepreneur with a dream to turn India into a global aerospace powerhouse, is that the country will be in a position to make it big in the multimillion dollar global markets for aerospace products and systems only through building up of high end facilities and advanced technological capabilities. Acquisition as well as organic growth continues to guide the multi dimensional expansion strategy of Aequs SEZ.
In keeping with its commitment to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India initiative, last year SQuAD Forging India Pvt Ltd , a tripartite joint venture between Setforge, Aequs as well as Aubert and Duval, installed a 10,000-tonne capacity aerospace hydraulic forging press at this aerospace SEZ spread over 250 acres in Belgaum in Karnataka. This closed die, hydraulically operated hot forging press happens to be the largest of its kind in the country.
This innovative facility is being pressed into service to forge larger aircraft parts including landing gear and various actuation parts besides structural parts weighing up to 400-kg. Till now the aerospace customers in the country had to look beyond India towards advanced industrialised countries for meeting their requirements in this category. For no other Indian enterprise boasts of such a facility. Similarly, Aerospace Processing India (API), a joint venture between AEQUS and Magellan Aerospace, operating out of AEQUS SEZ has achieved the distinction of being the first Indian outfit to set up Tartaric Sulphuric Acid (TSA) anodising line approved by the European aircraft major Airbus Industries. This latest genre facility replaces the
hazardous chromic acid analyser.
On the other hand, Aero-structures Assemblies India Ltd (AAI), a joint venture between Aequs and Saab, delivered its first batch of aircraft structural assemblies to Saab in 2014 for use in Airbus A-380.The first batch of the assemblies was delivered in just four months of the take off of this Greenfield facility.
As pointed out by Melligeri, the engineering services and integrated assemblies for global aerospace OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) is the key focus area of Aequs. Melligeri drives home the point that Aequs SEZ facilitates the strategic advantage of having players across the value chain in the area of precision engineering and manufacturing at the same location. Major customers of Aequs include Boeing, Airbus, Moog, EADS, GE, GKN Aerospace, Hamilton Sundstrand, Pratt and Whitney, Rolls Royce and Siemens.
Incidentally Aequs aerospace SEZ has also to its credit the distinction of becoming the first Tier-1 supplier to Airbus Industries from the private sector in India. Aequs SEZ is also into the supply chain network of Boeing through Saab which was awarded a five year contract for the supply of machined and sheet metal -parts of the cargo door bay of Boeing-787 Dreamliner. This aerospace SEZ is looking at reaping benefits from the offsets involved in India’s defence acquisition programme. Further into future, this aerospace SEZ looks at engineering the entire integrated systems for the global aerospace OEMs. Melligeri elaborates that the striking advantage of having players across the value chain in the same location would be the amount of time saved in moving parts from one location to another as well as associated cost of logistics.
In a major boost to the Indian aerospace sector, Aequshas announced the acquisition of the Texas-based T&K Machine. T&K Machine has over 45 years of excellent track record in delivering quality parts on time to the global aerospace entities including Boeing, Spirit Aero Systems, Triumph’s Vought aero structures and UTC Aerospace Systems.
This acquisition marks the first expansion of Aequs Aerospace’s manufacturing presence into the United States. “Aequs is committed to being an agile and reliable global supplier for our customers and in line with this, we have become the first Indian aerospace manufacturer to expand into North America,” says Melligeri, In addition to 65 skilled machinists & technicians, the 27,000 sq. ft. facility houses 28 CNC machining centres complete with the engineering, quality, and assembly capabilities necessary to serve the global aerospace market.
Melligeri also revealed that post acquisition, T&K Machine will be renamed as Aequs Aero Machine Inc. Aequs Aero Machine’s core competency lies in aerospace machining and assembly operations and will have an exit run rate of $10million in the current financial year. The integration of Aequs Aero Machine into the Aequs family endows Aequs with the capability to seamlessly supply to Boeing and its Tier-1 contractors from its global delivery platform.
Radhakrishna Rao
(The writer is a freelance columnist who writes on science tech and defence related issues)
