The integral nature of proper fixturing to successful machining has created a paradigm shift in the workholding industry and made work holding as critical to the manufacturing process as any of the machines or systems. Challenged by non-traditional materials, generative design, and smaller production runs, manufacturers have a new appreciation of the importance of work holding. Moreover, the increasing demand for components machined from conventional hard materials including titanium, stainless steel, and customized alloys, as well as ceramics and glass— means more aggressive machining with higher speeds and feeds.
Today, challenges occur on many levels, extending from basic size and strength considerations to problems of resonance and harmonics. This in turn has prompted the development of new workholding designs, creating an increasing demand for experienced designing firms with impeccable technical knowledge. This is where ASR Industries comes in.
With decades of experience in workholding production, ASR industries is one organization that has built up a core understanding of manufacturing principles along with knowledge and expertise in designing. Thanks to the proactive mindset of the management team, ASR has over time considerably reduced its dependence on human based decision making and has seeped into a tech run institute. With an impeccable design methodology as well as manufacturing processes, the firm now prides itself in timely delivery of quality-maintained products.
“We are among the top providers for work holding solutions all over India. Our team has provided fixturing solutions to almost all recognized machine manufactures and their vendors. ASR is currently at a pace of 50 different fixtures per month, which very few to none companies can claim proudly", says Shridhar Navghare, Managing Director at ASR Group.
Manufacturing Perfection
ASR is one amongst few entities in India, with exceptional technological grasp. Starting from concept study to design development and post development analysis, it uses the most sophisticated and advanced software to attain perfection.
“Each fixture that we design is backed by detailed study of component & machining operations performed on it. The concept design is prepared considering many important aspects like the material, shape & geometry of the component. Moreover, use of advanced 3D designing & modeling software gives us the freedom to focus on innovation. These Softwares assist to visualize the conceptual drawings and increase productivity of our design and engineering resources to create fixturing solutions better, faster, and more cost-efficiently", adds Shridhar.
Additionally, ASR has one of the largest and most sophisticated manufacturing infrastructures in the nation for the production of fixtures. The extensive selection of high-quality machinery from throughout the globe enables it to provide clients the best made goods with tight geometrical tolerances at competitive prices and with shorter lead times.
The present State of the art manufacturing setup is spread over 55,000 Sq.ft. equipped with a perfect balance of conventional & high precision VMC/HMC machines along with advanced deep hole gun drilling machines for internal oil galleries and in-house weld shop & paint shop for structures.
The company also offers an in-house facility for product & process validation that aids clients with component machining trials. Using high precision
measuring devices, internal QA may examine the machined item with regard to the necessary geometrical tolerances, surface polish, and more. Moving forward, every step of the fixture production process, from concept design to delivery, is carefully attended to. Every fixture has a 12-month warranty period starting from the shipment date.
Skilled Workforce
Currently, the company employs over 150 people with most of them being engineers. “We have a well organized structure with me being the Managing director and the supporting staff consisting of a Production (Manufacturing) Head, Design head, Quality and Assembly Head who help me supervise the entire company operations. All of them have 20 -25 years of experience under their belt", points Shridhar.
ASR also plays an active role in constantly collaborating and upskilling its employees. It now has a dedicated training hall for knowledge sharing and upgradation, while the video conferencing facility helps the firm to collaborate seamlessly to ensure minimum defect leakage.
The highly proficient quality assurance team of ASR performs stringent checks of every product that guarantees high output and longer product life. “Presently, all the fixtures manufactured at ASR go through our dedicated team of quality assurance experts, who are well equipped with high precision measuring instruments and gauges. This eliminates slightest possibility of a manufacturing error to reach our customer thus assuring highest standard of quality manufactured fixture", adds Shridhar.
Journey So Far ASR was incorporated in 1996 with an area of 8000 square feet with a small machine shop setup which included having one of conventional lathe, milling, drilling, tool & cutter machines. “We began with employee strength of 10. The business started from making fixtures, spare parts & carrying out maintenance job work", mentions Shridhar.
The firm also involved itself in designing & manufacturing of work holding solutions for Honing Machine, Hobbing Machine, Shaving Machine, Broaching Machine, Engine assembly & final assembly, Relation gauges, sealing dies, Blanking & piercing dies, winding machines, swaging machine, for companies like M/s. Bajaj auto, Johnson & Johnson, Colgate Palmolive , Siemens, Wipro Lighting.
Throughout its journey, the firm has strived to maintain its relevance and has kept itself on par with evolving market needs. Starting with designing & manufacturing of mechanical work holding solutions for automotive industries, to progressing towards 2D design software’s & machines. The firm was always proactive in enhancing and enriching itself from all possible directions.
After decades of continued growth, the firm decided to expand its infrastructure in 2009, and set up a new plant for office and manufacturing space having an area of 8000 Square feet. “This expansion helped us to create enough space to work effectively and efficiently for the now reached employment of 60 people. While, the expansion of our infrastructure led to the installation of machines like 3D CMM, advanced machines VMC & 3D design software, ERP software. This all helped us improve the coordination of activities to handle multiple projects at the same time", he adds.
In the year 2010, the firm expanded its reach in the international market as well and started working with Global customers like Grob, Yamazaki Mazak & Yamzen machinery & tools from Germany & Japan. This further helped it to grow the business all over India & Overseas.
This growth made for another expansion in 2014 where it built a plant with 50,000 square feet area and the employee strength now reaching 130plus. Along with that ASR also successfully established and implemented advanced machines into its manufacturing facilities & also improved the capacity of Machining.
Due to complexity of critical work holding solution & components we added few renowned & latest CNC Turn mill centers, VMC, HMC, Double column VMC, 5 axis deep hole drilling machine installed to achieve the target.
“Over the past 25 plus years we have manufactured more than 10,000 (ten thousand) work holding solutions for all most all automotive parts like cylinder block, cylinder heads, clutch covers , crank cases, gear box housing, oil sump, Bearing cap , cam shafts, Crank shafts, transmission case , axle arms, spiral housing, rocker arm , swing arm , intake manifold, exhaust manifold etc for more than 150 reputed customers around the Globe", concludes Shridhar.
Each fixture that we design is backed by detailed study of component & machining operations performed on it
Eyeing Towards Continued Growth
As the workholding market brings new opportunities for growth, ASR is set to expand itself to provide more advanced work holding solutions. With an aspiration to evolve as a world leader in work holding manufacturing, the firm also wants to continue nurturing & growing its current customer base while expanding to service new customers & markets.
“With the diversified & vast range of Hydraulic, pneumatic & mechanical work holding solutions designed, developed & Manufactured by us, for various customers over the years, we can proudly say there is no vehicle on Indian roads for which we have not made their work holding solutions” says Shridhar Navghare, Managing Director at ASR Group. In the future, the firm wants to continue engaging itself in providing our customers a quality work holding solution that makes their journey from concept part design to manufacturing setup a smooth flow.
