As a bus passenger, have you ever noticed how the glass panes on the doors and windows have been fixed? An average commuter may notice it only when there is water seeping through them during the rainy season.
Gets Automotives, a six-year-old Bangalore-based company that manufactures and assembles key aggregate components including doors for passengers, drivers, external flaps, rear engine and interior trim aggregates, brings an innovative method of installing window and door glass panes that discourages water leakages.
Mr. Aditya Kaul, Director, Gets Automotives, explained: “Typically for windows and doors, there are frames which have glass inside and they are mated together but this method may leave gaps for water to seep in. In our designs, the glass is pasted on to the structure of the door in the middle where we cut out the part and paste the window frame. This ensures that there is no gap between the structure and the window.”
Opening the ‘Door’ to business
Gets Automotives was incorporated in 2012. From being an auxiliary unit supplying doors and windows to one major global bus OEM in India, they have now grown to catering to more such OEMs. They have a strategic technological partnership with a Shanghai-based company but the assembly is done for the passenger and driver doors for intercity and city buses in their plant near Hoskote in Bangalore.
Talking about their USP, Mr. Kaul said: “We use the orbital riveting technology, which is currently not available in India. This technology eliminates the need for sealants and straight away removes the eight-hour drying time taken by the sealant. The total time is reduced to a couple of hours and the weight of the product is reduced too.”
And the bus OEMs gain from the savings on time, weight – because sealant also adds to it, and the cost of production.
Mr. Kaul explained: “In the market currently, two-sided rivets are used making it visible from the outside. In our process, it is a one-sided rivet which means the finish from the outside is not tampered with at all.” So, the aesthetics are taken care of too.
Gets Automotives is already manufacturing and supplying normal doors and windows for buses. If earlier the company was supplying exclusively to a few high-end bus brands, now they are entering the ‘mass market’ in an attempt to broad base their market so that their volumes do not get impacted with the cyclical pattern of the business.
Mr. Kaul added: “Our capacity is 100-120 units a month. Our vision is vertical integration to turn ourselves into a complete press and machine shop. It will bring in the work that we are outsourcing currently which includes sheet bending, sheet metal working and as such.”
Gets is looking at building a new plant in Narsapura in the next couple of years.
Viability with EVs
Gets is ready to cater to EVs when they appear on the Indian CV horizon.
Mr. Kaul shared: “Those products that are currently being pneumatically operated we have the option of making them electrically operated too. And that will be compatible with EVs. The doors then will need exclusive motors eliminating the need for pneumatic controls. Then the metal of choice to make the panels will be aluminium because it is light in weight. It works to our advantage because we specialize in creating products out of aluminium. Our Shanghai-based partner provides us with the electrical integration of the products and since China is already a big market for EVs all these designs have been tested on EVs. So the knowhow is already with us to emulate in India.”
And that is how Gets Automotives is easily the manufacturer of superlative key aggregates for the bus segment.