Text: Anusha B
Noida-based PPAP Automotive Ltd, manufacturer of automotive sealing systems, injection moulding, interior and exterior parts, plans to establish its manufacturing facility in Chennai at Sriperumbudur to cater South Indian customers. Currently the company has an assembly unit in Chennai at Thiruvallur and the new facility will take care of end-end manufacturing operations. The Chennai plant demands for an investment of around Rs 11 crore which is expected to commence its operations from fiscal 2016. The company is also planning to foray into Western region for which it has already purchased a land in Gujarat and the construction of the premises is getting mulled over and will soon wave its existence.
Abhishek Jain, Director of PPAP Automotive said, “We are planning to set up a new plant in Chennai at an investment of Rs 11 crore as we forecast a boom in the business and expecting to augment exports through our OEM customers. The prototype process in this plant should get over by the end of 2015.”
Ventured out their automotive arm in 1985, PPAP has stepped its toes in automotive sealing, injection moulding, interior and exterior parts building. For their products to be effectively on par with the international standards, technology partnering has become mandate for it. The company has joined hands with Tokai Kogyo co.Ltd, Japan for technology inputs for their manufacturing products like automotive sealing systems and injection moulding parts. The relationship between the 2 companies commenced in 1989, since then the company has a win-win partnership with the Japanese major in all its operations.
Polymer extrusion is a major process which is extensively used in sealing systems in automobiles. PPAP has the capability of processing and extruding diverse polymers like PVC, PP, ABS, TPO in association with the technology collaborator. The good sign is that the tooling and machinery required for these products (Polymer extruded products) are manufactured in-house. With these polymers the products manufactured by PPAP are outer belt moulding, Inner belt moulding, Trim door opening, windshield moulding, roof moulding, skirt air damper, slide rails, run channels etcetera. The aforementioned polymers like PVC, PP, ABS and TPO are plastic materials and PPAP has ventured out again with its technology partner Tokai Kogyo for a new business arm where the new establishment is called out as PPAP Tokai India Rubber (PTI).
PTI manufactures EDPM rubber based automotive sealing systems and TPV based glass run channel. This technology of using rubber based sealing systems in addition to giving varied sealing function delivers considerable weight reduction which is synonymous with the increase of fuel efficiency. A comfortable ambiance inside the car ego-satisfies the customer and these seal provisions ensure the comfortable cabin. The products manufactured using rubber include door opening seals, door opening trim, backdoor seals,hood seals.
Injection moulded product base is another vertical PPAP concentrates and in this vertical the company manufactures interior and exterior injection moulded products. The company has injection moulding machines ranging from 60 tons to 2500 tons. The company has been a pioneer in manufacture of injection moulded sealing parts like weatherstrip partition and gas assisted body slide protectors. The exterior parts include door handlers and projectors and the interior parts include door lining assembly,rear tray assembly, trunk lid assembly, pillar garnishes etcetera. The company also evolves robotic based assembly process to ensure zero defect assembled products to its valued customers.
The manufacturing process demands special purpose machines,tools and fixtures which are also manufactured in-house. The tool design and testing is also done in-house and validation of the design is also carried out. ‘The first time right’ and the ‘Value addition and elimination’ are the 2 huddle sessions they embrace to have the quality sustained in their products. In order to achieve light weight in auto segment every component should contribute its weight-age and as a Tier 1 supplier the company has contributed and claim that it has achieved 40% reduction in weight on 2 components which is mentioned elsewhere in the story. Also the company claims that the equipment air spoiler manufactured by them will optimise the drag to a major extent which increases the speed, pushes the aerodynamics up and augment the fuel efficiency to an extent.
As mentioned the company asserts 30% reduction in weight in the components like glass run channel and trim door opening. In these components the company uses raw materials with steel sides where the thickness of the steel calibrates between 0.4-0.5 mm and the product’s desired shape is achieved with the width indexed.
Commenting on the machine manufacturing Jain said, “We always use turnkey technology imbibed from our Japanese partner and we manufacture Special Purpose Machines assimilating the technology inputs. All the tools, fixtures used in SPMs is also getting manufactured in-house. We have localised 60% and 40% of raw materials are getting imported. Not to leave behind, PPAP’s customer-base is noteworthy. Soon after commencing its operations in auto industry the company became the supplier of Suzuki under the brand name Maruti. To highlight, Suzuki too started its operations in India by 1985.”
Since then, with the establishment of good rapport, PPAP ties knot with all major Japanese OEMs who have operations in Indian market. Some of the underscored customers of PPAP include Maruti Suzuki India Limited, Toyota Kirloskar Motors, Nissan India, General Motors India, Tata, Mahindra and Mahindra.
The company’s capacity expansion now accumulates to 60-65% and the remaining is reserved for future expansion. It also remarks that 10% of its products are exported and the export is taken care by its OEM customers. “The company as of now caters to 2.5 million vehicles per year with its turnkey products and the same will hit the figure of 4 million vehicles per year by 2020,” acclaimed Jain. The company’s business growth is manifested with its plans for capacity building and unambiguously the market fillips them with opportunities and the constructive comments about the company are reserved now. ACI
