Alpha Drives is one of the leading manufacturers of power take off (PTO) gearboxes in the country, specializing in the design, development and manufacture of PTO gearboxes for trucks. Having more than three decades of core engineering expertise in the design and manufacture of gears and gearboxes, the Coimbatore-based firm is passionate about geared power transmission.
At its R&D center in Coimbatore, the company has a team of engineers with software licences for CAD modelling and drafting as well as gear design, guided by seniors with decades of experience in gearbox design. Backed by technical experts from industry and academia, they work closely with several engineering colleges as well as the IITs in Mumbai and Chennai, which has helped the company partner with several truck manufacturers in the country in designing PTO gearboxes to enable them extend their applications to many truck-mounted applications such as tippers, cranes, compactors etc.
‘Make in India’ for Defence
Over the last few years, Alpha Drives has developed heavy duty power take offs for BEML’s Tatra vehicles, having successfully worked along with the OEM to indigenize the product.
The development and realization of the localized product is the culmination of a three-year team effort between BEML and Alpha Drives and is an inspiring success story of how an MSME, working together with a Defence PSU, has achieved indigenization of critical aggregates. Despite many technical challenges and logistical hurdles, Alpha Drives, with its expertise in PTOs and the continued encouragement and support of BEML Palakkad, was able to successfully roll out the PTOs.
Buoyed by the success of the project, Alpha Drives is now developing other critical aggregates such as winch drives for BEML.
Alpha Drives has modern manufacturing facilities in its home base Coimbatore that are equipped with conventional and CNC gear machinery as well as machinery required for gearbox housings. The supplier also has inspection facilities such as computerised gear lead and profile testers, hardness testers, noise level testers, infra-red temperature sensors, etc., at its PTO and R&D divisions.
One of the company’s key strengths is its ability to conduct load test to establish reliability of newly-designed and developed products. For instance, it has specially-built test rigs for cyclical and endurance testing of PTO gearboxes to ensure only the best of products come out of its manufacturing lines.
Future plans
Alpha Drives also manufactures planetary geared assemblies which are used for a variety of applications such as winches, hub drives and transmission gearboxes. That apart, the company is currently developing a host of new products, including split shaft PTOs where full engine power is required to drive accessories such as for fire engines, concrete pumps, etc.
As part of its future plans, the tech-centric supplier intends to build on its current experience in localizing Defence products by taking up other challenges in the sector, with a view to serving the nation by manufacturing other critical aggregates for the Defence sector.