Injection Moulding Asia Machinery
Indian IMM market witnesses growth country but pulled out due to the 2009 anti-dumping levy imposed by the Indian government on Chinese machines. Haitian subsequently set up a facility in Vietnam and says the latter will “serve as a bridge to the Indian market.” At Plastindia, Zhafir showed its all-electrics, since the latter and 1,000 tonne-machines are exempt from the tariff ruling. Another Chinese machine maker, Welltec Machinery, has also found a way around the tariff issue by partnering with Indian firm Jishu Hozen Machines. The Sino-Indian alliance has been operating a facility in Ahmedabad since last year. The investment seems to have paid off and it is now planning on doubling the size of its facility to 3,000 sq m and increasing output to 100 machines a year, said its Director HR Nagadia to PRA. The company sold 50 machines in the first year of its operations and now plans to set up branch offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata to further market its machines, said Nagadia.
Of the approximately 8,000 plastic machines sold last year in India, 70% was injection moulding machinery (IMM). This demand factor is the draw for foreign companies entering the Indian market. Facility set-ups aving opened its new factory in Chennai late last year, Canada-based machine maker Husky Injection Molding is able to offer mould conversion, mould and hot runner refurbishment for preforms. The US$20 million facility will cater to local as well as regional demand in South Asia, said Dinesh Budapanahalli, Vice-President, Sales & Services, Global Tooling, speaking to PRA during the Plastindia show in February. “We will be able to expand our engineering capacity for hot runners and preforms to handle increased demand, allowing for reduced lead times and faster time to market,” he added. The 5,700 sq m facility also houses a technical centre. It has already stocked up on spare parts, “to minimise downtime”, and started its engineering services, said Dinesh. In India, the company is seeing a growth in the water and juice beverage market. “This is a seasonal business and usually peaks at the end of the year, but our investments have to be ready to cater to all the seasons,” he explained. Making its debut at the show was the H-PET AE (all-electric) preform solution, with a 32-cavity mould producing a 19 g EcoBase preform for a 1 litre bottle. Launched two years ago, the system has been wellreceived in the market, especially in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, said Dinesh. Other systems shown for the first in India were the Ultra Sidegate and UltraSync hot runners. Germany-based Zhafir Plastics Machinery, a subsidiary of Chinese IMM maker Haitian International Holdings, is also making its entry into India by setting up its first regional office, since it expects an increasing demand for its technology in the country. The Mumbai office will start operating later this year with 18 persons. Zhafir, which makes all-electric machinery, has also increased its production area in Ningbo to 18,000 sq m to cater to demand in China. Plus, it increased its turnover by 80% last year, compared to the previous year, and has sold 2,000 of its Venus allelectrics since the launch in 2008. The firm also said it has received 30 orders for its new Mercury series, launched at K2010. Haitian previously collaborated with Indian machine maker Electronica to sell machines in the
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Machinery improvements ne of India’s largest machine makers L&T Plastics Machinery, meanwhile, has expanded its scope for all-electrics. The Chennai-based company introduced a 160-tonne E-Tech, which is belt-driven as opposed to the use of direct-drive technology, adding on to the 100-tonne it introduced last year. Another new market entry, the two-platen 450-tonne, developed last year, was also showcased. It had been sold to Indian customer VDS Plastics. US-based Milacron, which operates in India through a joint venture with Mamata Machinery known as Ferromatik Milacron, will transplant production of the Magna Servo machines to its facility in the US. The machines were developed by Ferromatik Milacron at its Ahmedabad plant and have been in production there since 2008. Milacron been importing these machines but due to increased demand has decided to also build them in the US. The company says that servodriven-pumps are revitalising traditional hydraulic technology, thus increasing the demand for the Magna in the US, “because they’re similar in price to standard hydraulics and provide almost as much energy savings as all-electrics.” The Magna uses a variablespeed AC servomotor to drive a fixed-volume gear pump, thus delivering only as much oil as is necessary for each stage of the process. The servomotor can also reverse the direction of pumping to reduce pressure, if necessary. If no additional flow is required, the pump will stop. As a result, the system requires less energy for oil cooling and ejects less heat into the plant.
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4 MARCH 2012
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