With an aim to serve global aerospace majors in India, St Louis-based Carr Lane Manufacturing Company, has partnered with Rialto Enterprises to set up machine tool facility in Chennai.

Carr Lane is specialised in aerospace tooling and serves customers worldwide with more than 10,000 standard components used in the manufacturing of civilian and defence aircraft and support equipments. The most significant customers for Carr Lane are Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Airbus, Pratt & Whitney, GE Aero Engines and Sanfran.

“With the recent expansion of aerospace manufacturing in India, Carr Lane Manufacturing has begun to promote its products within India. Here we have recognised an opportunity to not only control production costs through product sourcing from India, but also a market within the country for India produced products,”Colin Frost, COO, Carr Lane Manufacturing told BusinessLine .

“India is a significant market opportunity for us; with its large industrial base, a growing economy, and modernising infrastructure we think the market in India has the ability to rival our market in North America,” he added. Talking about the Indian facility, he said “We have very positive outlook on the aerospace sector in India. Currently our business here is growing very quickly.”

Investments

The company’s initial plan is to invest about $500,000. “We know that the Indian marketplace will differ from the American and European one. So it is critical that the unit begins to operate, then collects feedback from our customer in India to determine how to proceed with further investments. So we will make investments over the next 3 years,” said Frost.

At the moment, Research and Development is carried out in the US. “But it will not remain there. We are starting the unit in Chennai because the company in India must be able to make its own decisions, about when to deviate from the products and technologies used in the US,” said Frost.

Ranjit Pratap, Managing Director, Rialto Enterprises said, “We are about to spend ₹100 crore over three years for the basic infrastructure to be readily available to produce the components that are used by the aerospace industry.”

Talking about how the company has benefited from R&D, Frost said “Investment in R&D is critical. Even minor advances in established technology can mean significant improvements in production. For example, we make tens of thousands of locating pins annually. These pins wear as the work-piece makes contact with them. We have now been able to coat these pins with a super-hard proprietary carbide coating — extending the life of these components by at least two times. , a significant improvement in productivity and cost.”

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