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PU Elastomer Casting System
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Automating Elastomer Casting for Heramb Thermoplastics
Applications: Wheels, Mallets, Pads and Rods, Spiders and couplings, Load rolls
Materials: TDI and MDI material grades
About Heramb Thermoplastics
Heramb Thermoplastics Pvt. Ltd. is a progressive manufacturer of variety of cast PU components such as Wheels, Mallets, Pads and Rods, Spiders and couplings, Load rolls. At Convergence, we chat with Tushar Patki, Director of Heramb Thermoplastics on his journey of automation.
Interview
What prompted you to automate the elastomer casting process?
Well, we have always been progressive and tried to be at the forefront of latest technology and systems. To be frank, until now, no one in India offered a solution to automate the meter mixing process in elastomer casting. Twin is the first Indian company to develop a solution for this highly niche segment. Twin’s R&D team worked very closely with our production and quality team to develop a meter mix dispensing solution for our processes.
What were your key concerns from a business point of view?
Investments are made based on some assumptions. For you to realize the returns, these assumptions have to come true. Assuring the balance in assumptions and risks was the key concern. As a relatively smaller company you are always thinking whether we are getting into something much bigger than our capacity.
What were your challenges in shifting from manual mixing to an automated process?
First off, the decision to shift – it does not happen overnight.
There are many factors that we had to carefully consider. It was not just the Cap-ex of the solution, but other factors such as machine utilization, ability to achieve required product quality and product mix that were crucial to decide on automating our processes.
Typically, in PU casting one works on many different products grades simultaneously. On a daily basis, we work on an average of 4-5 material grades and variants. Getting all these materials for metered mixing on the machine was our biggest challenge.
How did you find a solution to these challenges automating casting process?
In addition the company’s investments in buying high-tech solution, success of Automation depends on the in-house team’s ability to re-engineer existing processes. From the beginning, we invested heavily in training our workforce.
Twin’s team stood by us day in and day out, solving every problem, difficulty faced by our team in implementing the solution. Twin’s relentless efforts and in-depth application understanding were very crucial in ensuring our smooth transition from manual mixing for casting to automated dispensing process.
Key Benefits
What are the key benefits of automated mixing and dispensing?
Two immediate benefits – significant improvement in product quality and savings on labor costs.
As of now, we have performed thorough in-house as well as independent, external laboratory tests on all our products. The results have proved to be positive at each level of examination.
Automation has not just helped us to bring about a substantial improvement in our product quality, but we are now able to achieve better quality, more consistently.
Man-hour saving was a fundamental expectation in going for automation. And with Twin’s MDI/TDI MMD we are seeing savings in action, almost immediately.
On choosing Twin's MDI/TDI MMD technology
We considered several other imported options. Twin’s technology scored ahead of others on several fronts – First, the price of the solution was highly competitive. Secondly, the team was highly knowledgeable about Meter Mix Technology and our elastomer casting processes. Third, the development and application engineering support was a key factor. Fourth, there was proactive support and willingness to make automation a success for us. Also, I must say, Twin’s development support has been phenomenal throughout. So, Twin scored well on all aspects of life-cycle costs of the machine.