Dürr builds paint shop for truck cabs in India

Dürr is building a paint shop for Eicher Trucks and Buses – a business area of VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd. (VECV) – at Pithampur. VECV is a joint venture of the Volvo Truck Group with Eicher. A large part of the order is for the local subsidiary, Dürr India Private Ltd., floated in Chennai in 1997 and is now able to draw on the efforts of around 180 employees.

The scope of services from Dürr includes the complete paint shop for light to heavy truck cabs. The RoDip E flexible rotational dip process is used for pre-treatment and electro dip coating. This process is quite persuasive with its fewer runs and sags, less carry-over and almost total rinsing out of dirt particles, even in hard to reach cavities. This leads to less rework and a uniform coating. Optimized immersion and retrieval phases result in reduction of the dip tank saving space, material and energy.

Two type EcoRP 6F painting robots provide fully automatic exterior painting. Interior painting takes place at manual workstations which are delivered by Dürr along with the entire paint supply system. The robots are visualized and monitored by the Dürr EcoEMOS supervisory control technology as are the skid conveyors and the decentralized electrical engineering.

Eicher relies on Dürr’s proven technology, and with it they reduce their unit costs. At the start, 12 units per hour are to be painted. The extremely space-saving layout allows for an easy plant expansion to about 18 units per hour at any time. This allows the customer to quickly and easily respond to changing market demands.

The plant will go into operation in June 2012. This order benefits Dürr in terms of its international network and its local presence in India. Almost 75 per cent of the order volume will be taken care of by the local Dürr subsidiary.

Along with Dürr India, which is involved in the construction of the paint shop for VECV, Dürr has a second powerful subsidiary in India with Schenck RoTec India. With approximately 200 employees, Schenck RoTec India, based in Noida, specializes in balancing technology.

Dürr is a mechanical and plant engineering group that holds leading positions in the world market in its areas of operation. It generates a good 80 per cent of its sales in business with the automotive industry. It also supplies aircraft, machinery, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries with innovative production and environmental technologies.

The Dürr Group operates in the market with three divisions. The Paint and Assembly Systems Division supplies production and painting technology, especially for car bodies. Machinery and systems from the Measuring and Process Systems Division are used in engine and transmission manufacturing and in final vehicle assembly, among other areas.

The third division, Clean Technology Systems, is focused on processes to improve energy efficiency and exhaust air purification.

Dürr has 48 business locations in 21 countries worldwide. The group achieved sales of Euro 1.26 billion with approximately 5,900 employees in 2010.