Böllhoff Fastenings Pvt. Ltd., the wholly-owned subsidiary of Wilhelm Böllhoff GmbH & Co. KG, is actively considering rolling out joining technology products for gaining a growing presence in the domestic commercial vehicle market. Being one of the leading suppliers of fastening, assembly and systems technology globally, the company is already making threaded inserts/brass inserts known as ‘AMTEC’ for plastic applications and ‘HELICOIL’ for aluminium castings for the passenger vehicle industry.
Additionally, it is importing riveting technology products called ‘RIVTAC’, RIVSET, RIVCLINCH, RIVQUICK and RIVET which are suitable for joining of aluminium, steel, plastics and non-ferrous metals as well as for mixed joints, multiple-layer joints and hybrid joints of these materials. The Indian arm of the Bielefeld-based firm is actively considering building these kinds of products locally as they are well accepted by the global CV industry. Some world automakers sourcing products from Böllhoff Fastenings (Germany) are Audi, Daimler, MAN, CNH, JCB, Mercedes Benz (trucks, buses and cars), Scania, VW, etc.
In order to gain a further insight into Böllhoff India’s expansion plans, MOTORINDIA interacted with its Country Head, Mr. Jagdish Keswani, at his corporate office in Gurgaon. He stated: “Our customers are demanding a fastening technology that meets the requirements of tighter cost controls. Against this background, our endeavour is to produce solutions designed to increase customer competitive advantage.”
Talking about its product lines, he shared: “India is strategically an indispensable business destination for Böllhoff. Being an underpenetrated market, we see a lot of growth in vehicle sales, which will give a further boost to our business. We initially started with ‘HELICOILS’ (in early 2010) which gets into aluminium castings. We eventually started making brass inserts (in 2012) which are predominantly used in plastics in which we have been able to establish ourselves very well. We cater to multiple industries like automotive, aerospace, general industries like white goods, construction equipment, electrical and engineering, etc. In the automotive segment, we supply to Tier-1 suppliers of intake manifolds of many leading OEMs like Maruti Suzuki, HCIL, Hyundai, etc. For air cleaners, our AMTEC (aftermoulding technology) is quite different from the in-moulding technology prevalent here. At present, both these solutions are serving the domestic passenger vehicle industry, and if there is a requirement for, say, AMTEC in the commercial vehicle industry, we would definitely start supplying to them.”
Currently, Böllhoff Fastenings is supplying its products and solutions to some of the marquee global auto component firms which have a manufacturing footprint in the country, like Magneti Marelli, Keihin, Man-Hummel, Mikuni, Inzi Mecaplast, Mahle Filters and Roki. Plans are afoot to enhance its client base with its existing and upcoming product lines.
Shedding some light on its yet-to-be tapped riveting technology, Mr. Keswani stated: “We had a good ingress in the CV segment with riveting technology with the sheet metal technology like Rivkle. We supply not only the technology but also the toolings to Tata Motors, Bharat Benz, Ashok Leyland, etc. The domestic CV industry is gaining eminence with the entry of leading European players like Scania, Daimler, MAN, etc. Moreover, the domestic players are also enhancing their technical capabilities. These OEMs basically use intake manifolds from aluminium or castings, and may switch over to plastics in the future. That’s a possible opportunity with Rivkle in the CV segment. All these technologies will gain eminence and will surely roll out from our local facility once there emerges demand for this. Other riveting technologies that we source are flexible tolerance mechanisms,” FLEXITOL”, RIVCLINCH, RIVSET, and, of course, ‘RIVQUICK’”.
It is to be mentioned that ‘RIVQUICK’ blind rivet nuts and studs are available in many variations and sizes and therefore offer numerous fastening solutions with additional functions. They are available with different head shapes and material combinations. For internal and external threads of components with small wall thicknesses, Böllhoff offers ‘RIVKLE’ blind rivet nuts and studs. These elements are mounted without counter-pressure (“blindly”) and can therefore also be set at hollow sections.
Despite the current downturn in the global automotive market, Böllhoff is continuously growing with its focus on its customers’ requirements. Böllhoff is constantly expanding its product range, in the existing and new markets, with innovative products and services for its customers. Having a network of 41 companies at 37 sites in 23 countries, employing more than 2,250 committed employees, its proximity to all major markets is assured by having more than 50 agents in five continents. The family-run enterprise entered India nearly eight years back and initially started as a trading arm. After gaining a foothold for three years, it came over to Gurgaon in the middle of 2009 and started manufacturing some of the key product lines.
“We started with one product group. Now we have two, and as we move forward we will be building a new facility right opposite the existing one. We have earmarked an outlay of Rs. 5 crores for a new facility, plant, machinery and manpower training. So we will emphasize on localization of our product groups. We are focussing on the special proprietary fastening and assembly technology. The job of Böllhoff India is to promote these little unknown next-generation technologies within the country by making them aware of the same”, added Mr. Keswani.
Currently, Böllhoff India is running a 10,000 sq. ft. in-house facility and is in the process of opening a greenfield unit right opposite the existing one. At the five-year-old facility, it is churning out 10 million units of brass inserts per year which will be enhanced further to 30 million units. However, its HELICOIL output is to the tune of five million parts as this technology is yet to gain traction in India. Nearly 90 per cent of the production is meant for the automotive industry and the remaining 10 for non-automotive industries like construction equipment, electrical industry, medical equipment, machine tool industry, aerospace. Nearly 40 people employed here are operating 10 CNC machines, and another 10 equivalent high-productivity CNC machines will be imported once the new plant goes on stream. It is also running a technical centre in Chennai which is majorly in application engineering and testing of the products.
Böllhoff, a family-run German enterprise, is an international group specialising in fastening and assembly technology. It is more than 130 years old and, having been established in 1877 at Bielefeld near Hannover, today it is having manufacturing locations in West Germany, East Germany, France, Brazil, the US, China and India.
In 2013, the Böllhoff Group generated a turnover of €466 million. In India, it is looking at achieving a figure of €4-5 million euros in 2015 and €8-10 million euros by 2020.