Now their promise of ‘With Sika, you are on the high road to safety’ is closer to the customer. The reason being, Sika, though known in the global OEM segment since 1982, is more aggressive now in expanding its presence in the automotive aftermarket segment in India.
Sika is known worldwide for its products for crash body repair – windshield bonding adhesive, seam sealing, acoustic repair, panel bonding and plastic repair, besides a set of tools required to perform these activities.
Mr. Rajesh Shete, Business Director – Industry, Sika India, shares: “In the OEM segment our market share is almost 50 per cent because we cater to passenger cars, buses, trucks, and in the marine segment. Though Sika globally has been catering to mostly European OEMs, in India we are now focusing on the aftermarket and its requirements in terms of technology and commercials since we have the relevant product line.”
The King of Bonds
Sika offers two kinds of adhesives for windshield bonding – Titan Solo and Tack Go. Mr. Amit Asija, National Business Development Head – Automotive Aftermarket (Target Market Industry), explains the virtues of the two products. “Titan Solo is a primer-less windscreen adhesive which is easy-to-use without any pre-treatment, while Tack Go uses a primer and offers a safe drive away time of half an hour without the airbags and two hours with double-sided airbags.”
He is quick to point out that Tack Go boasts of proven crash-test certifications in the aftermarket outperforming the FMVSS 212/208 standards.
Around the world, till date, Sika has carried out more than 60 crash tests to assess the worthiness of its adhesives’ crash resistance feature.
Sika products in sealants, structural bonding and coatings among other repair solutions in the aftermarket segment are Auto Tape, 529 AT, Gard 6300, Panel Bonding with 4720, 2900 Plastic Repair System, Smart Plasto Fix or Damp 610, to name a few.
Mr. Asija shares more information on the product line: “Sika Flex Auto Tape is the most innovative product for hem flange area application on new body parts, which replenishes 100 per cent OEM-like finish minus any effort. The Flex 529 AT is a sprayable sealant for seam sealings and lap joints in collision repair and body construction. It adheres well to all the materials commonly used in the body shops. Our Gard 6300 is a brushable seam sealer formulated to allow body shops to recreate OE brushed finishes. For plastic repairs, there is Power 2950 which is typically suited for broken bumpers and another variant Power 2955 can fix head light mounting clamps and tail lamp brackets among others. Smart Plasto Fix for mechanical fixation was launched keeping in view the insurance companies that seek cost-effective and reliable solutions for repair than replacement.”
Sika Power 4720, a high strength panel adhesive, is used for structural bonding on the production line and is especially suitable for panel bonding with exposure to high dynamic stress areas. He adds: “This structural adhesive can be easily spot-welded through when wet. It is specifically designed for metal and composite panel bonding for door skins, rear body panel, roofs, quarter panel and structural parts only in combination with spot welds and rivets. Then we have protective coatings like Gard 6470 that is anti-stone chip, 6620 a water-based anti-stone chip and 6220 which is a cavity wax. Sika Damp 610 is designed for the aftermarket and has high usage in tuning shops for subduing vehicle panel vibration and sounds in the interiors.”
Premium ‘Safe’ adhesives
The advanced adhesive technology that Sika is bringing to its aftermarket consumers across the board claims ‘safety without compromise’ using SDAT meaning Safe Drive-Away Time standard. Their official report says that Sika tests SDAT under ‘severe conditions more than the FMVSS 212 standard requirements’.
The FMVSS or the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 212/208 standards are applicable for cars, light trucks and buses and are the ‘only relevant standards’ that test for windshield retention in case of a crash.
Mr. Asija explains: “The purpose of the standards is to reduce crash injuries and fatalities by preventing the ejection of occupants from the vehicle.” It means that all the simulations and modeling that are used to create Sika solutions are geared to offer the vehicle drivers the maximum safe conditions to be in at any given point in time.
Sika’s Go Technology was developed to achieve the required strength levels to pass the FMVSS 212/208 standards to function over a large climate range by integrating energy absorbing resin to the product composition.
Hence, with a valuable bouquet of solutions for the aftermarket at hand, Sika is eager to spread its presence despite a challenge or two. Mr. Asija explains: “When one has already passed a learning curve in technology, how does one then pass that technology to the market which is large yet not able to offer the same price points that the products normally command? And that is the challenge. In the last three years, we have already arrived at those price points and people have appreciated it too. At times, for India everybody has to make changes in their business models and we too have.”
The cost factor
Sika has not only acknowledged the challenge of catering to a cost conscious Indian market but has also found a way to overcome it and come out a winner already.
Mr. Shete shares: “We have multiple products globally and some of those are not in the Indian market at all. Where there is a need to hasten the speed of a particular repair, offer better aesthetics or improve upon a particular process, we can still bring in products which are beneficial to our Indian customers in terms of costs.”
The officials are quick to point out that “not necessarily all Sika products are in the high-end range as their products in the other categories also would come with the same values that define the high-end ones”.
And one way to offer best products worthy of investment on the part of the customer in India is to reach out to the garages. This largely unorganized service sector will help Sika gain a better penetration into the market. And in this context, Sika has already made inroads by becoming the first supportive member to the All India Automobile Workshops Association (AIAWA).
Mr. Shete says: “The garage service providers already do have some level of knowledge of technology in their local areas, but they are not formally trained by the OEMs. And that is a big challenge for anyone who wants to get the best services out of them. So what needs to be done is for us to share the knowledge with them so that the end user would receive a satisfied service that is of quality.”
What Sika hopes to cash in on is the need of the garage service providers to overcome space and time constraints in delivering vehicles faster so that they are able to rotate their business quicker.
Sika’s world-class sealants and adhesives are slowly but steadily gaining ground in India and are succeeding in driving their message home that ‘With Sika, there is no shortcut to safety’.