MEIL was established in 1966 by Mr E K Parthasarathy . After post graduate engineering studies in the UK and rich work experience in major automobile engineering companies of the time in the UK and Europe, Mr Parthasarathy returned to India to set up manufacturing operations for automobile ancillaries in the country. Chennai ( then Madras ) was the city in which Mr Parthasarathy received his early education; it was also the hub of automobile manufacture in the south of India and it was logical for the company to be incorporated here.
In 1982, Sundaram-Clayton Ltd. (SCL), a TVS group company and market leader in India in the manufacture of air brake systems for medium and heavy commercial vehicles, outsourced the machining of manual slack adjuster bodies (MSA), to MEIL. The Company has focused on the manufacture of slack adjusters since then and is now one of the largest manufacturer of MSAs in the world with annual production exceeding one million pieces. The Company markets its MSA directly.
Legislation enacted in Europe and North America in 1996, mandated that trucks, tractor-trailer combinations and passenger buses with air brake systems should be fitted with Automatic Slack Adjusters (ASA) instead of Manual Slack Adjusters, as an original equipment. MEIL developed the product indigenously in 1998 and, in partnership with John Bruce who has considerable marketing and logistics experience in the global auto ancillary sector, commenced its global export operations . John Bruce & Company UK was formed in 1999 specifically to market and distribute the MEI ASAs throughout the World.
Legislation requiring Indian OEMs to use ASA is expected in 2006 will expand the market for ASA in India. MEIL, with its experience in manufacturing ASA for the international market is well positioned to supply and service domestic requirements for ASA