Vice President Global Engineering, ROSS Controls
Headquartered in Troy, Michigan, ROSS CONTROLS® is an international manufacturer of pneumatic valves, controls systems, and safety products for the fluid power industry. Since being established in 1921, ROSS has always been one of the industry’s strongest leaders in pneumatic valve technology. ROSS’ focus is to continue to be a formidable competitor in key industries where its tailored technology offers customers a distinct value advantage.
Q. Please brief us about company’s Indian & global reach?
ROSS Controls has its headquaters in the United States with manufacturing
& sales offices located in Germany, United Kingdom, France, Brazil, China, Japan & India. Our Indian facility is located in Chennai with sales engineers in Chennai, Coimbatore, New Delhi, Pune and Kolkata.
Q. Please also highlight the latest initiatives in your industry domain?
Safety awareness is the key initiative. Business leaders are realizing they cannot afford to have their employees operating in an unsafe work environment. When I talk about safety, it is two things. It is not only protecting employees that are interacting with equipment, it is also protecting the equipment itself from possible damage and things not functioning the way they are designed to work. Some countries are behind others, but even countries new to safety are beginning to understand the importance of safety not only to their people and machines but to the bottom line.
Q. What are the market opportunities for your company’s products in India?
The greatest market opportunities are in our focus industries; glass, metals, press and pneumatic safety. Our focus is to drive our poppet and safety technology into these key industries, such as mechanical power presses, hollow glass and steel processing, that value long-term reliability and productivity. The growth in infrastructure investments offers opportunities for our steel and aluminum focus products, while the increase in consumer consumption creates demand for our hollow glass products.
Q. What is future prospect for your industry?
India is a growing market for both pneumatic automation and pneumatic safety. With the focus on “Make in India”, industry is beginning to invest in higher level automation and worker safety which bodes well for long term growth opportunities.
Q. Is there any plans for expansion & new investment in terms of product development or new technology adoption to cater the demand of the industry?
Yes, our Indian engineering team is developing products for both the local and global markets. We look at certain industries that we think value our expertise and product portfolio. What we want is our field engineers or sales engineers to know as much about the equipment that our product is going on as the customer knows.
We want them to look to us on how to handle the pneumatic circuitry on their equipment. Companies have put a great deal of effort into streamlining processes, and people do not have time or experience to think about the pneumatic circuitry of their equipment. In a perfect environment, they look to us to help design their equipment.
In certain industries, we certainly have that ability to help them, but we are not trying to be that expert in every industry. We are focused on where we know we can be successful – where productivity is important to a customer and critical to them making money. When that is the case, we have a lot of success.
Q. What is the top line product range & Is there any plans to launch new products?
We have many top line product ranges, depending on the industry. One product I would like to highlight is the DM2 valve used on mechanical power press clutch/brake applications. The DM2 is a patented 3/2 normally closed valve distinguished by CrossflowTM passages. This arrangement provides outstanding flow characteristics and an integrated monitoring capability with total memory. The valve provides dynamic monitoring and dynamic memory which is unique in the industry.
We are continuously developing new products, for example the Crossflow Size 6 (CF6). The CF6 is also used on mechanical power press clutch/ brake applications but was designed in India for the unique requirements of this market. The valve uses CrossflowTM passages for enhanced flow and offers external monitoring options.
Q. What is your vision for your company?
ROSS Controls will continue to pursue being the full safety solution provider to our customer base along with being the global technology leader in our focus industries. What is great about ROSS is that we are very focused on what we do well – we are the pneumatic leader at providing safety solutions and enhanced productivity for our customers.