To be in outer space is not everyone’s privilege, especially auto component makers. But CK Birla’s National Engineering Industries Ltd, which makes bearings under the NBC brand, in association with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is to supply parts for shuttles or rockets.

Till now, the company has been supplying its bearings to automobile and rail manufacturers globally.

“Although ISRO’s requirement was only for 40 bearings, for a particular application, still we took it as a challenge because they required special material with special heat treatment that we developed for them,” Rohit Saboo, President and Chief Executive Officer, NBC, told BusinessLine .

He said the company has recently supplied the bearings to ISRO, which may use the parts in its next space shuttle.

Part of the multi-billion conglomerate CK Birla Group, NBC got the order two years back from ISRO and after more than a year of research and development (R&D), the product was developed. It also had to work with the engineers of ISRO to make these specific bearings.

“They (bearings) were not manufactured in the automatic line and each component of the bearing was individually manufactured in special machines so that we get the best possible surface finish, heat treatment and all other minute things,” Saboo explained.

He said there were only 14 people, including those from the ISRO, who developed and manufactured the 40 bearings in the company’s manufacturing plant in Jaipur.

“The application was first time for us so we had to do lot of cross checks as we did not want to fail,” Saboo said. “This was a dream project for the company and post this success we hope to get more such deals from ISRO,” he added.

He said the company hopes to garner more such projects from global companies. It has set a turnover target of around ₹6,000 crore by 2020.

The company had a turnover of ₹1,500 crore in 2013-14 and expects to close this financial year with around ₹1,650 crore.

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