Compressed air specialist ELGi Equipment has found success focussing on advanced manufacturing, innovation, and customers.
Compressed air specialist ELGi’s facilities run on precision engineering, innovation, and sustainability with automated assembly lines, advanced quality control, and eco-friendly practices that ensure every part and product meets quality and efficiency standards.
Pioneering a new era in compressed air solutions
ELGi’s innovation and reliability in the compressed air industry continues to address challenges with precision-engineered solutions and a customer-first approach.
From reducing lifecycle costs with sustainable compressed air solutions, to leveraging performance analytics to drive predictive maintenance, ELGi understands and addresses the challenges faced by customers.
What sets ELGi apart is its commitment to excellence. By investing in advanced manufacturing techniques and vocational training programs, it strengthens the industry with skilled talent and elevates standards for quality and efficiency.
Complex castings
The ELGi foundry was set up in 2013 to produce special castings for its airends while addressing all the challenges of quality, cost, and delivery requirements. The ELGi foundry is Pressure Equipment Directive (PED) and ISO-9001 certified. They are one of the rare compressor manufacturers who make their own airends.
It has an installed capacity of 9,000 metric tonnes to make high-precision ductile and grey iron castings annually.
The foundry uses a fast-loop, automated, no-bake chemical bonding system and employs the Furan and Amine Cold Box techniques for making 10 moulds per hour.
With complex internal capacities and solid shapes, more than 200 variants are developed to cater to ELGi’s air compressor manufacturing needs.
Precision machining
ELGi’s precision machining has been a defining factor in the company’s reaching of standards.
In 2011-12, ELGi’s Air Compressor Plant was established on over 100 acres, equipped with high-precision grinding, milling, and turning machinery, alongside critical machines constructed by the ELGi machine-building team.
The state-of-the-art plant is equipped with high-precision grinding, milling, and turning machinery, with a few critical machines built by the ELGi machine-building team. The facility is also installed with mixed model conveyorised assembly lines, a vertical storage and retrieval system, a metrology laboratory, and testing equipment, ensuring high accuracy and reliability.
Securely welded
The pressure vessel is one of the critical components of an air compressor package. The pressure vessel division (PVD) was established in 2007 to enhance product quality and support the needs of ELGi air compressor packages.
This integrated manufacturing setup includes designing and manufacturing air-oil separators and air receivers for ELGi air compressors. The air-oil separator vessels are used to separate the air-oil mixture in screw air compressors, whereas air receivers are used to store compressed air for
direct applications.
The ELGi pressure vessel division has a manufacturing capacity of 2400 vessels per month, operating with 100+ people and accredited with sound quality systems and processes in place. The pressure vessels manufactured are compliant with the ASME U Stamp or AS1210.
Quality assured
The assembly process and parts are critical to the performance of an air compressor. The implementation of total quality management processes in the assembly plant has led to delivering products with no defects and high performance. ELGi has won the 2019 Deming Prize for the sustained application and leverage of TQM (Total Quality Management) across the organisation. ELGi is the first globally established, industrial air compressor manufacturer, outside of Japan, to win the prestigious award in more than 60 years.
The manufacturing processes and flow lines are designed to capture the quality parameters and assure adherence at every stage before passing on to the next stage. Auto-guided vehicles and digitalised feedback-based measurement systems are deployed to ensure quality in each stage.
Every ELGi manufactured unit delivers compressed air solutions of quality and best-in-class efficiency at competitive pricing to customers across various industrial verticals worldwide.
ELGi products have ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, ISO 45001 : 2018, Green Product certification, ISO 22000:2018.
Excellence embedded
ELGi has refined its processes to meet the need for high-precision rotors needed to make screw air compressors and machines working at close tolerances.
ELGi began custom designing and building its own rotor milling machines to meet this demand. A machine-building division was established in 2007 to develop complex in-house machines critical to the process.
By effectively deploying in-house engineering talent and capability, ELGi built these cost-effective machines to ensure the highest quality standards, thereby reducing production costs
Brand assurance through ELGi’s best-in-class warranty
Every component of ELGi equipment, from airends to enclosures, undergo rigorous testing and inspection. This maximises operational reliability and reduces the risk for the customer. ELGi offers a warranty of up to 10 years on its oil-lubricated air compressors.
It covers manufacturing defects and faulty parts. It ensures lower lifecycle costs by reducing the need for replacements and repairs. The warranty program reflects ELGi’s confidence in the quality of their compressors
Investing in the next generation
Aside from the quality of its products and warranty, the team at ELGi found it challenging to find technically skilled talent to replace its older, skilled workforce.
To overcome this challenge, ELGi’s invested and developed a vocational training program. This initiative addresses the scarcity of skilled talent by offering technical training in engineering and advanced production technologies. The ELGi Vocational Training School (EVTS) has trained people to work on key assembly lines.
Since August 2023, trainees have attended the B.Voc program in Production Technology in partnership with the Community College of the Central University of Tamil Nadu, India. Graduates are assured employment at ELGi, highlighting the company’s dedication to workforce development and industry excellence.
For manufacturers, ELGi isn’t just a supplier, but a trusted partner in productivity, sustainability, and growth.