Profile
Profile

Dense traffic and high speed characterises everyday life on roads. This puts increasing demands on the field of vehicle engineering for higher vehicular safety and comfort. The steering system plays a major part in fulfilling this requirement.

 

ZF Steering Gear (India) Ltd. (ZF INDIA) was incorporated in the year 1981 as a joint venture ZF Friedrichshafen AG.

 

ZF INDIA is a Pioneer in Manufacturing and Supply of Ball and Nut Integral Hydraulic Power & Worm and Roller Mechanical Steering System in India. Its plant is located at Village Vadu Budruk, Taluka- Shirur, 28 km away from Pune, on Pune - Ahmednagar Highway, in the western part of India. Pune is a major automotive hub with OEM like Force Motors, General Motors, Mercedes Benz, Mahindra Trucks & Bus Ltd, TATA Motors, etc. Present installed capacity of the plant is 2,00,000 units of  Worm and Roller Mechanical Steering Gears and 3,75,000 units of   Ball and Nut Integral Hydraulic Power Steering Gears.

 

ZF INDIA has state of the art technology in Design & Manufacturing various types of Power Steering Systems and Mechanical Steering Systems based on customers needs. It is continuously in the process of widening its product base to meet the increasing demands of automotive market and is keen to diversify in appropriate product lines.

 

ZF INDIA has an established business management system with certification for IATF 16949:2016 It has created service and spare parts network of around 60 dealers uniformly spread all over India, Nepal, Middle East, South Africa and Bangladesh to address to all its customer’s needs.

 

ZF INDIA has an established structure for carrying out various facets of manufacturing functions as per business process defined by IATF 16949:2016 . It has adopted lean manufacturing systems and has employee strength of around 1000 personnel.

 

ZF INDIA’s Product Range:

 

  • Ball and Nut Integral Hydraulic Power Steering Gears for Heavy Commercial vehicles
  • Integral hydraulic Power Steering Gears for Medium and Light Commercial Vehicles
  • Power steering gears for SUV and off road vehicles
  • Cast Iron Vane Pump
  • Aluminum Vane Pump
  • Oil reservoirs
  • Integrated Oil Tank
  • Steering columns
  • Drop arms
  • Intermediate shafts
  • Universal joints
  • Bevel gear boxes
  • Worm and roller mechanical Steering systems for Tractor and Light Commercial Vehicles and all accessories for the same
  • Power Rack and Pinion Steering system for Passenger Car
  • Mechanical Rack and Pinion Steering System for One Toner Passenger and Goods Carrier
  • Double Barrel Steering gear
  • Tractor Hydraulic power assisted Steering gear

 

Manufacturing Equipments:

 

  • 31 HMC’s including state of the art machines such as Mazak, Mori Seiki etc.
  • 19 VMC’s
  • 18 Turning centers
  • 50 SPM’s
  • 200 GPM’s. State of art Grinding machines with  robotic loading unloading 
  • Automatic Assembly lines for Vane pump and piston assembly with fool proof system 
  • CNC Testing machines 
  • 3 Generator Sets
  • 8 Compressors
  • An automated conveyor Paint shop with seven tank dip system with wet on wet facility to give 500 hrs of salt spray life

 

Heat Treatment Equipment and facilities: 

 

ZF INDIA has state of the art heat treatment facility comprising,

 

  • 20 nos. Heat Treatment furnaces. (Semi automatic electrical heating sealed quench furnace line, Gas fired Sealed Quench line, Drip feed carburizing furnaces & CGCF) with continuous data logging facility for process control and monitoring
  • Nitrogen plant - 30 M3/Hr capacity
  • Endogas generator (G2000E)
  • LPG. Storage installation
  • Vibro finishing machine for super polishing of steering parts
  • Shot blasting machine - Schlick make, Germany
  • Brinell, Vickers hardness testers
  • Micro hardness testers - Zwick Germany and Future tech Japan
  • Metallurgical Microscope and Image Analyzer- Zeiss, Germany
  • Stereo Microscope - Zeiss Germany
  • Universal testing machine
  • Salt spray test machine

 

 Heat treatment processes carried out include:-

 

  • Annealing
  • Gas carburizing, hardening and tempering- From 0.1m to 1.3 mm case depth requirements
  • Bright hardening and tempering

 

The Products Manufactured by ZF INDIA are duly designed and developed as per its customers requirement. The products are manufactured with at most care for cleanliness, smooth function in operation, easily accessible fitment and long life cycle. It has a zero defect (with Pokayoke Concept) assembly line for assembly of Steering systems for HCV, LCV, MUV/ SUV, Passenger Cars, Tractors etc.

 

ZF INDIA has a self sufficient in house Tool Room for supporting and maintaining various services like tool Re-sharpening, Grinding etc; required for conducting the manufacturing activity continuously. It has all the necessary material handling devices to ensure safe and smooth transportation of material within the plant.

  

Manufacturing Concepts:


1.  Lean cellular manufacturing

2. Adaptation of principles of 5S. (link 5S to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5S_(methodology))

3. Continuous Improvements - Kaizen. (Link Kaizen to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaizen)

4. Kanban, First In, First Out (F.I.F.O.)

5. TQM and TPM

 

The processes are monitored, controlled and qualified as per the set parameters and all production and quality assurance activities are managed by team of qualified and experienced engineers and workmen under the leadership of the chief metallurgist. The steering system of an Automobile falls under category of Safety critical part and essentially very special steels and other materials of unique compositions are selected and used after proper heat treatment operations. Hence, ZF INDIA has created  the necessary infrastructure for heat treating up to 500T/ Month, including a modern metallurgical laboratory and special process techniques that are required to achieve the desired Metallurgical performance standards

 

All key equipment has been provided with complete power back up to ensure the uninterrupted process which is essential for excellent metallurgical properties.

 

Quality Control Equipment in Standards Room

  

  • Zeiss Contour Tracer 
  • Fully CNC Three Coordinate Measuring machine with PH20 Probe
  • Zeiss RONDCOM60A for Roundness testing
  • Zeiss Surface Roughness Measuring machine
  • Portable Co-ordinate measuring machine FARO Make
  • Mahr Universal Length Measuring machine (Helios)
  • Trimos Metroscope for calibration of Gauges

 

In House design facilities for:

 

  • 2D and 3D Modeling
  • Pro E, IDEAS, Auto cad software
  • Finite Element Analysis
  • SAP ECC 6.0 ERP System
  • PLM

 

The main features of ZF INDIA products are easy operation, compact, trouble free steer ability, easy adjustments and positive road feel, to name a few.


Quality Assurance equipment in Standards Room: 


    * Fully CNC Three Coordinate Measuring machine with PH20 Probe

    * Zeiss Contour Tracer

    * Zeiss RONDCOM60A for Roundness testing

    * Zeiss Surface Roughness Measuring machine

    * Portable Co-ordinate measuring machine FARO Make

    * Mahr Universal Length Measuring machine (Helios)

    * Trimos Metroscope for calibration of Gauges

    

ZF INDIA’s valuable customers are:

 

Power Steering Gears:

 

  • Ashok Leyland Ltd.
  • Daimler India Commercial vehicles Pvt. Ltd.
  • Force Motors Ltd.
  • KAMAZ Motors Ltd.
  • Mahindra Trucks & Buses Ltd.
  • MAN Trucks India Pvt. Ltd
  • SML Isuzu Ltd
  • Tata Motors Ltd.
  • VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd.
  • Volvo Group
  • Captain Tractors

 

Mechanical Steering Gears: 

 

  • Action Construction Equipment Ltd.
  • Bajaj Auto Ltd.
  • Escorts Ltd.
  • Force Motors Ltd.
  • International Tractors Ltd.
  • Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd
  • New Holland Fiat india Pvt. Ltd.
  • Piaggio vehicles Private Ltd.
  • Same Deutz-Fahr India Private Ltd.
  • TAFE Motors & Tractors Ltd.
  • Universal Construction Machinery
  • Mahindra and Mahindra --Swaraj Tractors
  • Preet Tractors--Punjab