KOHLER to Introduce Advance Engines in Indian Market

February 15, 2011 11:53 am

KOHLER is one of the World’s leading manufacturers of engines for agriculture, farm, automotive, construction, genset, industrial and marine applications. Sudipto Mukherjee, General Manager – Marketing, KOHLER Engines India (Lombardini India Pvt. Ltd.) speaks about company’s history, products and future plans.
 
Over 80 years, Lombardini, now a KOHLER group co., has been making important contributions to the development of the diesel engine. Would you like to share the successful journey of Lombardini in India?
Lombardini srl. Head Quartered at Reggio Emmila in Italy, has been one of the global leaders in lower HP range diesel engines and now part of Kohler Co.’s Global Power Group. Lombardini started business in 1922, when Adelmo Lombardini, along with partner Pietro Slanzi, produced their first engine. In 1933, together with brothers Alberto and Rainero, Adelmo decided to start his own business and founded a company called, “Officine Meccaniche Fratelli Lombardini”. To do so, he bought an existing mechanics firm and its foundry, which were located outside Reggio Emilia.
After the difficulties of the Second World War and, during post-war reconstruction, Lombardini was ready to meet the increasing demands of the market with the company’s line of engines (both diesel and gasoline), marine engines, and a wide range of tractors and motor-driven pumps.
 
Two fundamental milestones in the life of the company were reached by the end of the 1950s: In 1957, Lombardini began producing the LA line of engines (single-cylinder air-cooled diesel engines), and in 1959 the product line was expanded to include the first tracked agricultural tractor, the Castoro model.
 
The resulting success was so great that the production facilities on the Via Galliano, that in 1963, the company decided to build a new factory, which is the current facility in Pieve (near Reggio Emilia). At the same time, the company began to take on a true international dimension with the opening of its first foreign branches: France (1964), Spain (1965) and Germany (1967). In 1986, the special independent Lombardini Marine division was founded to manufacture marine engines. It was felt that such a division could produce better results. Lombardini’s continuous effort to raise the technological level of its products, the company was able to launch a line of water -cooled diesel engines in 1988:
•      FOCS (Fully Overhead Controlling System)
•      CHD (Compact Heavy Duty).
 
In the early 1990s, Lombardini acquired the Acme Company in Valdobbiadene near Treviso, which specialized in producing gasoline engines and the production of the CHD hi-tech, water-cooled diesel engines was concentrated in Slovakia.
 
Because of the company’s constant effort to improve quality, Lombardini was certified as complying with ISO 9001 already in 1995. And in 2002, for meeting the environmental quality standard and the specific QS9000 standard.
 
In April 1999, the company became part of the American group called Mark IV Inc. The initial results of the acquisition were obtained that same year with the important purchase of Ruggerini Motori, Lombardini’s traditional competitor in the Reggio Emilia area. The final phase of this program saw the acquisition of a factory in India in August 2001. This is when Lombardini India Private limited came into existence. Its manufacturing facilities presently include special & automated assembly lines for single- and multi- cylinder engines air- and water- cooled both for diesel and petrol/gas engines as well as machining of critical components.
 
In 2007, Lombardini was acquired by Kohler Co., a US$ 5 billion company Head Quartered at Wisconsin, U.S. and having global presence of its different businesses. Kohler offers a wide range of products, from kitchen and bath fixtures to fine furnishings, and five star diamond resorts to engines and generators. Lombardini – the European leader and world’s 3rd largest producer of diesel engines up to 50 kW – joined Kohler’s Global Power Group and contributed to its growth.
 
What are the major achievements for KOHLER Engines in various sectors?
When we talk of the various major achievements of KOHLER Engines globally it would associate with the various engines that have proved their mark in the market.
Agriculture & Farm
KOHLER Engines is the unquestioned leader in providing low and medium horse power engines for different agricultural machineries, helping the end users to improve their performance and cost efficiency. Some of the new introductions have been low HP engines for the Mini Tractors and Power Tillers.
 
Applications of KOHLER Engines in agricultural machineries include Tractors, Power Tillers, Power Weeders, Mini Harvesters, Power Sprayers, Fruit Picking/Harvesting, Lawn Mower, Motor Cultivators, Rotary Hoes and other farm machineries.
 
Construction
Construction market has become one of the strategic targets of KOHLER Engines. Taking advantage of its new, complete line of air-cooled and liquid-cooled engines, the company has been able to take up engine supplies to a variety of construction equipment with leading OEMs on their markets, particularly in applications involving road compacting, earthmoving and road maintenance. Thanks to their advanced technology and reliability, KOHLER Engines engines offer performance that is perfectly suited to a market that requires quiet, vibration-free products that improve the comfort of the ultimate user. One of the new introductions in the European market in the concept of the Sileo engine: a soundproofed unit that drastically reduces noise. Some of the new introductions in the Indian market recently have been low HP diesel engines for compactors, mixers and light towers.
 
KOHLER Engines have quite popular globally in equipment for construction industry like: Asphalt cutters, Tower lights, Cement mixers, Compact shovel loaders, Dumpers, Mini-excavators, Mini-dumpers, Compressors, Plate vibrators, Roller-compactors, and Elevated work platforms.
 
Gensets & Industrial

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