Established in 1939, A.T.E. is a multi-business organization offering world-class products and solutions spanning several segments. A.T.E.’s businesses cover manufacturing, industrial sales, distribution and service. Its pumps business is known as the flow technology vertical within the company which is the distributor of pumps for certain global brands.
The flow technology segment of the company represents some of the global brands in specific areas – Sulzer, one of the world’s largest manufacturing companies, uses A.T.E.’s sewage management and dewatering products such as pumps, mixers and diffusers. Iwaki, a Japanese company, virtually a global leader for 70 years, uses chemical handling pumps of various sizes.
In the textile industry, pumps are majorly used for print processing and in the water processing area. For these, the brand provides pumps than can handle aggressive acidic and alkali dyes and also provides special pumps that are capable of pouring two liquids in a specific ratio.
In an exclusive interview, Mr. S. Rajendran, Sr Vice President, A.T.E. Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., said that in any textile plant it is impossible to predict the peak water load for the machines. Therefore one needs to have a system that caters to the pressure required by the machines, and for that the brand has hydro pneumatic systems (HyP) which are pressure boosting with the use of Teraflow pumps.
These are imported pumps mainly for the Indian market and can handle tremendous water pressure required by the textile processing machines. However, the brand Teraflow not only caters to the Indian but also the international market and is a global brand. They provide solutions such as centrifugal pumps and hydro pneumatic pressure boosting systems and many more.
Today A.T.E. commands seven brands, including its in-house brand Teraflow. The pedigree in the flow technology business is in the manufacturing. “With a lot of experience and knowledge we continue in the pumps business not only as manufacturers but also as distributors,” said Mr. Rajendran. “The unit is not a large stakeholder within the company, but one thing that separates the flow technologies unit from the textile business is that the latter is an agency business. It doesn’t buy and sell, whereas we buy and sell. We have our own warehouse for storage.”
Though there are a lot of established players in the pumps industry, A.T.E. is standing tall among them, which according to Mr. Rajendran, is the strength that it has acquired through the application of knowledge. “Today, not only in textiles but in other process applications, we understand how that process works and what is the critical part of the process, how can a product like a pump make a difference and how do you select the product, etc. That’s where I believe we stand out and we are comparable to the best. We are a team of people who understand the various industrial processes and are able to provide the right kind of products and solutions”, he added.
The brand does not have its focus on emerging as the business tycoon of the pumps industry but on developing certain applications and value-added products. Within the textile segment, the brand’s focus is on import substitution as the imported pumps do not get reliable service centers in India and the locally made pumps would clear that problem. He observed: “The pumps would be globally comparable and locally available. In the Indian market consistency and reliability is lacking. Support is lost after five years. However, A.T.E. customers have been using the pumps for 10 years and are happy with the support.”
Based in Pune, pumps from the company are sold across the country. The pumps business is humongous and A.T.E. produces only specific kinds such as chemical handling, air-operated double dyers, sewage treatment and centrifugal pumps. The initiator of the Swacha Bharat machine used in river cleaning projects, it has now its focus on sewage treatment and effluent treatment.
The company products vary from the smallest pump in the Iwaki range that are 60-90 mm wide used in medical equipment such as sonography machines and chemical analyzers used in blood tests having a flow rate of 0.3 ml, to the pumps used in sewage treatment with a flow rate of 200 kilowatts. They have also made 240 kilowatt pumps in India itself.
Some of the reputed textile companies that have tied up with A.T.E. are Royal Classic, using the Yamada pumps based on flow technology, and reputed textile companies such as Welspun and NSL Textiles. Jeyavishnu Textile Processors has recently ordered hydro pneumatic pump for pumping hot and cold water to its existing knit dye house to cater to various air flow and soft flow dyeing machines.
A.T.E. has worked on 50 such projects in the past few years and is emerging as the most reliable distributor. Today, the brand has 300 to 400 pumps in stocks, out of which 140 are Teraflow pumps.
The company is keeping its future focused on new initiatives like zero water discharge pumps which offer a lot of help to effluent treatment systems. General micro-economic advances like small towns setting up their own sewage treatment plants provide an additional focus for the brand.
One of the most important areas of development is automation, within any plant, especially textiles. “A series of pumps that we have developed can measure and control certain parameters which could be up to four parameters and depending on what needs to be measured or what controlling is to take place it would start or stop one of the pumps”, said Mr. Rajendran. “A lot of automation is taking place in the world even in countries like Europe, from where a lot of machinery is imported for the Indian market, automation is a key aspect in the machinery but those features do not exist when the machines come to India. This will give A.T.E. a lot of scope to grow in the market.”
The company is also focused on providing a lot of value-added services to the customers. A.T.E.’s future prospects include improving on and providing value-added services. “When someone is setting up an effluent treatment plant, how do we provide them complete guidance, for instance, how do you install your mixers. So today we are able to guide our customers”, Mr. Rajendran added.
This is one of the core areas of the company’s focus and the company is trying to work on it, and is moving forward with each succeeding day.