In the year 1976-77 Mr. Ramaswamy started off with a small foundry. Gradually, he started importing second hand machines from abroad on behalf of his customers. Amaravathi group was his first customer and from there it was no looking back. Presently, they provide solutions from Concept to Commissioning. Specializing in turnkey projects, their strategy is to provide latest technology at affordable cost whether in Asia or Europe. They constantly strive on their strengths in terms of quality, cost and decent technology. To explore more about Servall’s Philosophy, Infrastructure & Investment, Present business, Future prospects etc. we had an interaction with Mr. Y. Shivaram Prasad, MD here are the excerpt of the same.
Philosophy & Strategy
Briefing us about the philosophy and strategy Mr. Y. Shivaram Prasad said “One of the key assets of the company’s philosophy is that the management and discipline has been inculcated within the employees and entire staff down the line. Our value is whatever it may be; we don’t compromise on our quality, even if we have to lose couple of orders. We have certain standards with regards to design and quality; where we don’t want to compromise”.
Our strategy is to provide the best quality equipment of latest technology at an affordable cost to the Indian companies and the same thing applies, even for European markets”. Further he informs that due to difficult market scenario Europeans have also become very picky and choosy about the cost and if they get the same quality equipment from Asia at cheaper rates they will go for the same.
Infrastructure & Facility to Serve the Indian Paper Mills
Today Servall can make 3 paper machines, 200-250 drying cylinders, 100 press rolls in a year. The infrastructure is styled & managed to be an integrated medium & heavy engineering facility including a large foundry – possibly biggest in the region.
• State of art design & engineering facility with latest version of 3D modeling software & sufficient number of licenses.
• Large database with equally strong knowledge base.
• Three and half decades of paper domain experience with participation in over 65 paper mill projects.
• Having four paper mills in the group gaining opportunity for in-house extensive research & development.
Investment in R&D and Newer Technologies
Servall Engineering possesses all the technical knowhow to manufacture paper machine up to 7 meters in width and speed up to 1300-1400 mpm. In fact they had identified R&D, engineering infrastructure & adaptation of international technologies to be the core strengths for the natural healthy development of the organization.
• The company is one of the few medium & heavy engineering industries that can boast of having 6 meter wide 800 tons Hydraulic CNC press brake.
• Many of the existing machine tools have been retrofitted with CNC & servo technologies.
• The design & engineering department has been armed with new designing & 3D modeling engineering software that can meet with present day technological demands.
• The company has always believed in adopting advanced technologies by partnering and sharing for which they recently collaborated with Walmsleys Ltd., UK to manufacture, supply & commission medium & high end paper machines.
• The infrastructure is built in such a way to handle rolls up to 60-70 tons as they are the heaviest part in the paper machine. If tomorrow anybody wants to put up bigger machine in India, they have the infrastructure to handle that and the machine tools to manufacture such big rolls.
Synergies from Servall – Walmsleys tie-up
Servall – Walmsleys tie up has multipronged benefits both to the segment as well as to the company.
• First time in the country to engineer, indigenously manufacture, supply & successfully commission 5 meter wide 800mpmWriting&Printing Paper machine.
• Gaining confidence of paper segment majors like ITC, JK, BILT etc. to get the technologically challenging paper machine rebuild contracts against stiff competition from international giants like Voith & Metso.
New Product Development
The company since its inception has maintained a policy to deliver, new products & technologies to the Indian paper industry. Few results of its efforts in this direction can be listed like first time top former & triplenip press for a 5 meter, 800 mpm fine paper machine, 4.5 meter wide, 2500 mpm winder, 1500mpmwinder for a minimum slit width of 65mmetc
Recent Major Orders
• Pragati Papers – 4.16 meter wide, 600 mpm & 140 TPD newsprint paper machine with Combi Binip press executed in 2002 whose present operating speed has surpassed its design speed.
• Bindal Papers – 5 meter wide, 800 mpm & 300 TPD writing & printing paper machine with first time Servall – Walmsleys top former & triple nip press executed in 2009.
• ITC, PSPD – Bhadrachalam PM7 3.16 meter wide & 350 TPD duplex board machine rebuild, retrofit & refurbishment Servall – Walmsleys project under execution
• Supply of new shoe press, size press, combi blade coater etc. by Servall – Walmsleys to ITC Ltd for their order of rebuild of PM7 being installed in Bhadrachalam.
•Press section modification at Shreyans Industries Ltd. – binip being converted in to binip with shoe press at second nip position by Servall – Walmsleys.
Advice to the Industry
For a sustained future Mr. Y. Shivaram Prasad advised: “One must be efficient, competent and quality is must. For viability you need to increase your scale, demand is there but the only point is you need to be careful about the raw material, which is a major concern. The industry has to collectively take measures like reduction in energy consumed & emissions, adaptation of newer advanced technologies – automation & instrumentation, adherence of international housekeeping practices like cleanliness, maintenance, quality etc. Ultimately the per capita consumption will grow providing huge growth potential for the industry”.
