An article by Mr.S D Natu

Wheeling the Industry
When man first invented Wheel & Lever, he identified a skill of using mechanical energy to reduce the fatigue on his muscle power and a long and fruit full journey had begun towards excellence in engineering. With the invention of steam engine, and the Industrial Revolution thereof, man learnt to use his engineering skills, for enhancing the output apart from removing his obvious limitations for increasing the productivity. This lead to rapid industrialization and foundation of engineering industry, bringing economic prosperity and the journey is unending with continuous improvement and development in science and technology.

Smooth flow of any manufacturing organization largely depends upon making available inputs- raw materials and finished goods at the right spot at the right time. For doing this you need Power Transmission Devices- especially Mechanical Power Transmission Devices. The Driving Machines and Driven Mechanisms to be driven are a basic part of Material handling. Through various types of Gears such a desired Transmission of Power is normally accomplished.

Pioneer in Power Transmission:
We are now presenting here a brief profile and valuable observations of Mr.RK Taskar, Managing Director of CPEC Ltd., the pioneers in Power Transmission equipment in India, along with a perspective of this company.

CPEC Ltd. formerly called Communication and Power Equipment Company Ltd. was founded in 1942.The company's activities were initially confined to the import of 'Crofts' Worm reduction Gears and other engineering goods. In1962, the company embarked (in collaboration with 'Crofts' Engineers Ltd.UK) in manufacture of various elements of Mechanical Power Transmission equipments. Incidentally CPEC was the first such company to start full manufacture of Transmission Gear Drives in India.

During the take over in early seventies of the global activities of 'Crofts' Engineers Ltd. UK by Renolds p.l.c. of UK they took over the collaboration of Crofts with CPEC Ltd. The company was therefore fortunate in acquiring Holroyd Transmission Technology of Renold, in addition to Croft Technology for Worm reduction Gears, as well as recently developed technology for 'Ritespeed' Helical Gears.

Few of the Strengths of CPEC Ltd. are:
1. Wide range of Worm Gear Boxes established in India for the last over 35 years,
2. Wide range of Standard and Special Helical Gearboxes.
3. Excellent Imported Machine Tools to cater to the desired quality of Gears- both Worm & Helical.
4. Capability to design and develop any type of Special Custom-built Drives/Gearboxes and they have a solution to every conceivable Power Transmission Task.
5. The company has been the pioneer in designing and manufacturing slewing ring drives for Effluent Treatment Plants installed in Mathura refinery and South India Viscose.
6. The Company is well established with most of the OEMs in the country.
7. A very Wide range of Customer Base in India of over 700 Clients.

If you look at the list of company's customer list you would have whose who in almost all the sectors of Industries. Just to sight a few examples: Engineering: L&T, Alfa Laval, Hindustan Dorr Oliver… Pharmaceutical/Chemical: Hindustan Antibiotics, NOCIL, Hoechst… Paper: Ballarpur, Nepa Mills, and Titaghar Paper… Iron & Steel: TISCO, Hindustan Steel, and SAIL…. Textile; Reliance Industries, Tata Mills, Bombay Dyeing…. Public Sector: BHEL, Western/Central Railways, and BARC… CPEC's equipments go into making the operations of various customer companies more and more smother.

CPEC's Product Range:
The important factors In the Power Transmission Applications normally are Size, Ratios of Speed Variation required and the type of mounting. CPEC has a number of variety of products to cater to the different such needs for a number of applications. The Product range can be summarized as follows:

1.Worm Reduction Gears: For Universal mounting, Integral Base, Agitator Type Vertical, Heavy Duty Aeriation Cone and Combined Double, Integral Base Vertical, Shaft Mounted, Strip Mill/Tube Mill Worm Reduction Gears.
2.In Line Helical Gears and Geared Motors.
3.Shaft Mounted, Vertical Heavy Duty Helical Gears, Parallel Shaft Helical Gear Boxes.
4. Cooling Tower Gears.
5.Automatic Backstops, Automatic Control Variable Speed Pulleys (ACVS), Manual Control Variable Speed Pulleys and Drives.
6. Crown Pin Flexible Couplings.

CPEC's Product Applications:

With this background of the company, We are now presenting here a brief profile and valuable observations of Mr.RK Taskar, Managing Director of CPEC Ltd.

Mr.R K Taskar- Managing Director CPEC Ltd.

Mr.Taskar is an engineering graduate from Engineering College, Anand, Gujrat, before this assignment had retired as President-Diversification, in Crompton Greaves Ltd.; after an impressive career of over 38 years. Mr.Taskar had a vision of looking beyond the horizon and notice the importance of the Sun rise industry of telecommunications. He was the main pillar behind the diversification in Telecom Field of Crompton Greaves Ltd. almost a decade ago. We are happy that through these valuable responses we are able to present an insight of a successful &dedicated senior professional like Mr.Taskar.

Q: Will you please reflect on your early background and please narrate briefly about the people who have influenced you?
A: "People who have influenced me: Staring with the Principal of my Engineering college, late Shri S B Junnarkar, a devotee of Ramkrishna Paramhansa, a saintly person who was loved and respected by staff and students alike-it was he who made me realize that in life what matters most is the value systems. This was followed by late Mr. Derek Embery, departmental head in a firm in UK where I joined as a management trainee in 1956 at the age of twenty, as a fresh engineering graduate.- He inculcated in me a problem solving approach based on analytical logic starting with fundamentals. My role model has been Mr. PR Deshpande, who built up Crompton Greaves in to one of the most respected companies in India in the 60s and 70s. He was a principle centered leader, and a visionary who lived for the organization, in contrast to the " carpet baggers" who use the organization for personal gains and glory, often leaving the organization in tatters, by the time they are done with it. My Guru in my first job in India was late Mr. SG Padhye, a brilliant mechanical engineer and a mentor par excellence, who also retired as MD of Crompton Greaves Ltd."

Q: Kindly tell us about your professional/political career resume, outstanding contributions / achievements?
A: "I was fortunate during my innings with Crompton Greaves, spread over thirty eight years to have handled several green fields and expansion projects, setting up new factories, and introducing new products including entry into Telecommunications as soon as it was opened up for private sector. I retired as President-Diversification."

Q: What is the role of Material Handling in overall manufacturing operations?
A : "As is well known, handling adds cost but not value therefore the role of automated/mechanized Materials handling is to minimize variable cost on its account while adding minimum over head costs."

Q: What Technological Developments do you perceive in future in MH area? -With specific reference to Infotech?
A: "With more intelligence getting built into each station for MH, the way will become clear for unmanned processes and factories capable of taking decisions- for example the seasonality in demand for climate control products such as ACs or fans will be monitored by the unmanned factory through the inputs, including the internet, say a hot spell or unseasonal rains, and the working hours or the process speeds will be controlled to result in desired supplies to the market-and obviously vendors supplying to the units and linked to the main unit by automated Material Handling will follow the suit."