Thermax’s Rs 166-cr factory in Andhra Pradesh

Energy and environment solutions provider Thermax inaugurated its new manufacturing facility in Sri City, AP, built with an investment of Rs 166 crore. It is keen to move beyond Pune, by setting up one of its key business units – absorption chillers here.

“The company’s latest production unit will manufacture a wide range of vapour absorption machines comprising chillers, heat pumps and heaters in its first phase. Constructed on a 40-acre plot in the domestic tariff zone at Sri City with an investment of Rs 166 crore in phase I, the unit has a capacity to produce 400 machines per year,” Thermax said in a BSE filing.

MS Unnikrishnan, MD-CEO, Thermax said the company has invested heavily in digitization and automation. Converting waste energy to produce absorption chillers, Thermax has designed it in India entirely. For the engineering goods segment, this innovative development is a rarity, he said, noting that the company has used cobotics – co-existence of robots with human, also.

The new plant will also be an important manufacturing hub for Thermax’s global operations that will augment its export capabilities, Thermax Chairperson Meher Pudumjee said. This is the ninth manufacturing plant of Thermax in India, out of the 15 hubs spread across India, China, Germany, Denmark, Indonesia and Poland.

Unnikrishnan also said as a pre-emptive strategy, Thermax had engaged TVS one-and-half years in advance to impart skill training on the use of cobotics. Also, the heavy engineering factory would have a diverse employee base including women blue collar workers. A typical lifecycle of a chiller that could be 20 years or so, is the basis for using robotics and automation. To spearhead predictive maintenance, it has a centralised control room in Chennai.