Injection moulding parts major Sekisui DLJM is setting up its third plant near Chennai to support its Japanese twowheeler and four-wheeler manufacturers in Tamil Nadu. Currently the company has two manufacturing facilities each in Greater Noida and Tapukara in Rajasthan. Sekisui DLJM supplies around 150 components to India Yamaha Motors (IYM) and seven components to Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India (HMSI). The Chennai plant will commence its operation by October 2014.
Sekisui DLJM Molding is a joint venture company between Dupty Lal Judge Mal Pvt Ltd in India and Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd. in Japan, and is operated by Sekisui Techno Molding Co Ltd. Sekisui Techno Molding currently supplies to major companies like Toyota, Daihatsu, Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki. Apart from automotive components, the company also manufactures plastic modules for rain water harvesting tank, which is a new technology introduced in India.
“We will be investing around Rs 30 crore for establishing initial production and anticipate that the Chennai facility will employ approximately 120 people when in full operation,” Tadahiko Yoshioka, Head, Sekisui DLJM. In addition to injection moulding, Sekisui DLJM will also have the painting process at its state-of-the-art paint shop with pre-treatment line, in the upcoming plant. On lightweighting he said there are several ways to make the part lighter by changing the design, process and metal replacement. “For design change, we normally review the design with CAE analysis, to check if the new design is feasible in terms of function and strength.
Part weight can be reduced by process technology like gas injection or foaming injection moulding. We already have gas injection moulding, but in case of foaming injection, the challenge lies in coreback system using all-electric injection machines, that requires significant investments. Considering this initial investment, application and volume of business must be carefully planned to implement this technology. Currently Sekisui Techno Molding in Japan is already applying this technology to parts for four-wheeler. Depending on the demand in India,
Sekisui DLJM Molding can bring the same technology from Japan,” Yoshioka said.
The component manufacturer is also capable of producing metal replacement parts in exteriors and engine surrounding parts and currently offer seat handle, guide stopper, and engine related parts. In case of seat handle part, the company has a flexibility to combine metal replacement technology with gas injection process technology. The challenge of metal replacement lies on how to choose composite material and to design the part, to optimise the balance among design shape, function, and cost.
Yoshioka opines that replacing metals with engineering plastics may not be the only solution to reduce cost, but, “definitely, we can reduce weight and cost, while having great design freedom. In case of aluminium die-casting part, several process steps are needed including melting, die-casting, sand blasting, finishing, and painting. But injection molded parts require simple injection molding process with constant quality and shorter processing time,” he said.
Sekisui DLJM supplies one crore parts to IYM and four million parts to HMSI. In the year 2013 the company has recorded a turnover of Rs 100 crore and in the current year, it is expecting more than 30 percent growth. ACI
Story : Bhargav TS
One Comment