Text & Photos: Bhargav TS
Sekisui DLJM Molding, a joint venture of Sekisui Chemical Co Ltd and Dipty Lal Judge Mal, has inaugurated its third plant in India. To cater the needs of India Yamaha Motor the company recently commenced its operation in its third plant, which is located at the Yamaha Suppliers Park in Vallam Vadakal, near Chennai. The plant was inaugurated by Takashi Terabayashi, Managing Director, India Yamaha Motor Private Limited along with other officials from Sekisui DLJM.
L-R: Terabayashi – MD, India Yamaha Motors; Takahashi, GM, Sekisui Chemical; Idehara, President, Sekisui Techno Molding; Horii – Director, Sekisui Techno Molding; Tadahiko Yoshioka, CEO, Sekisui DLJM and Dev Jain – COO, Sekisui DLJM
The CEO of Sekisui DLJM Molding, Tadahiko Yoshioka said, “We have made an initial investment of Rs 30 crore for the new facility, which currently has 9 injection molding machines. Depending upon Yamaha’s schedule as they expand their production within next 2 years, we will also be expanding our capacity by adding more machineries. The entire facility can house more than 25 machines and going forward we are also planing to install a painting facility. Currently all the parts supplied by us are painted by India Yamaha Motors. Once the OEM increase vehicle production, we will setup the painting facility and will supply the painted plastic parts.”
The plant, which is spread across 15,000 square metres, has a total capacity of 100 tonnes per month. To start with, it will make nearly 30-40 part numbers and will be gradually expanding to 60 parts. Sekisui DLJM supplies 50% of the plastic parts to Yamaha. Currently the company supplies around 20 parts to the vehicle manufacturers for its motorcycles and scooter models. The company has planned to invest Rs 100 crore in the next 3 years to enhance the capacity and expansion.
The company already has 2 plants in India, one in Greater Noida and other in Tapukara, Rajasthan. The Greater Noida plant is dedicated to Yamaha as it supplies injected molded plastic parts to Yamaha’s Surajpur plant. The Tapukara plant supplies to two-wheeler OEMs like Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India, Suzuki and Harley-Davidson (for its Street 750 superbike). The same plant also caters to passenger car makers like Honda Cars India and Maruti Suzuki. Currently, both plants are running close to 80% capacity.
Sekisui DLJM manufactures components through injection molding process where plastic raw material is melted and injected into the mould and then cooled down to take out the parts. It also carries the painting process at its state-of-the-art paint shop with pre-treatment line to eliminate dust and to condition the surface of the components. Later if any of these parts require assembly, it has been carried over in the assembly line and others are decorated with graphic seals, which are supplied by their group companies. Finally plating process is carried out to decorate and to improve paint adhesion of the parts by depositing three metal layers (Cu, Ni and Cr3+) over the final components. To design and manufacture the components, Sekisui DLJM has its in-house mold manufacturing, embedded with CAD/CAE and mold flow analysis software.
