As consumers slowly make their preference for new safety features in vehicles felt, OEMs are paying more attention in protecting the wiring harness, fuel injection pipe and pneumatic line sections with premium flame-retardant corrugated flexible hose pipe (CFHP) to increase safety levels in their vehicles. The Bangalore-based Sunrise Corrugated (India) is among the 25-odd companies in India that have moved swiftly to cash in on this business opportunity in the Indian CFHP market.
Talking to Autocar Professional, Laxman Singh Rajpurohit, managing director of Sunrise Corrugated, says: “Wiring harnesses, fuel injection pipes and pneumatic lines in any vehicle are vulnerable to mechanical and thermal damage, climatic interference and deposits of wind, dust oil or water.”
The company’s Flame Retardant Polypropylene (FRPP) and Polypropylene (PP)-based corrugated flexible hose pipes are used as envelopes to protect these important conduit lines. Thus far, the company was manufacturing FRPP and PP corrugated flexible hose pipes for the automotive market. In 2012, it added Flame Retardant Nylon (FRN) and Nylon corrugated flexible hose pipes in its product portfolio. In this fiscal, it has supplied 30,000 metres of nylon-based CFHP to the automotive industry.
Hiking CFHP capacity
Burgeoning demand for CFHP has led the company to undertake an expansion programme at its production facility at Jigini industrial estate in Bangalore. With new automated machines, output is likely to increase by 30 percent this year to 1.3 crore metres per annum starting from 2012-13, says Rajpurohit.
Looking forward, 75 percent of its production is expected to come from the FRPP and PP CFHP segment while 25 percent is expected from the newly introduced flame retardant nylon and nylon CFHP products.
India produces around 10 crore metres of CFHP for the automotive industry per annum, of which Sunrise has a 10 percent share. Rajpurohit says the company has targeted an increase in market share to 15 percent by 2015. “We are utilising our full production capacity on the back of increasing demand for our products,” he remarks.
Sunrise Corrugated produces CFHP in 14 varying sizes starting from 5mm to 50mm; these have been successfully tested and approved by FTS, as per UL 94 V-2 certification, for being flame-retardant. That is, it has the quality to retard the propagation of fire, and self-extinguishes itself when ignited.
Manufactured using prime grade FR compound, FRPP-based CFHP prevents sparks arising during thermal treatment from damaging the conducting lines of the vehicle.
When a vehicle is mobile, there is a likelihood of fire erupting due to damage or leakage in the fuel injection, wiring harnesses and pneumatic line system. But the lines covered by FRPP corrugated flexible hose pipe help arrest sparks, thereby preventing the outbreak of fire, says Rajpurohit.
Expanding infrastructure
Having begun operations with a single air-cooled Olmas machine in 1999,
the company today has six hi-tech CFHP manufacturing machines including four automated Italian water-cooled ITIB units. The ITIB machines help deliver higher output capacity, he claims.
Sunrise, which consumes around 550 tonnes of polypropylene and nylon as raw material per annum, has earmarked Rs 4 crore for the capacity expansion. It posted a turnover of Rs 8 crore in 2011-12 and expects to achieve Rs 11 crore in 2012-13.
In addition to CFHP for the automotive industry, Sunrise has also begun manufacturing Double Wall Corrugated High Density Polyethylene (DWCHDP) pipes used for infrastructure projects that require underground cable installations, he points out. By 2015, it expects to notch a turnover of Rs 25 crore, of which the bulk – Rs 20 crore – will be from automotive.
At present its key auto clients are manufacturers of wiring harness, fuel pipe and pneumatic line systems, who use CFHP in their products. While direct clientele include wiring harness players like Mindasai and Pricol, indirect customers range from Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Eicher, TVS, Asia Motor Works to tractor makers like TAFE and John Deere. It also supplies CFHP to Wabco TVS, which manufactures safety and control systems for commercial vehicles.
On the export front, the company is currently in talks with a few Singapore and Bahrain-based wiring harness system makers but Laxman Singh did not reveal their names.
The company also has an in-house R&D facility that is engaged in improving the product quality to be at par with industry standards. The ISO 9001:2008-certified company is now working to get TS 16949 : 2009 status. Its products are tested and certified by various agencies including Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology, Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), and Mettex Laboratory of India, which is accredited by Department of Science and Technology. Sunrise Corrugated is also planning to set up another manufacturing facility in Pune.
JAISHANKAR JAYARAMIAH.