Vinitec Automotive, established in 2008, is rapidly growing into a renowned player in the field of specialized collision repair systems and welding equipment for auto companies. With its head office in Gurgaon and sales and service engineers in 21 States across the country, the company partners Autorobot of Finland and AMH of Canada.
Autorobot is in the field of collision repair systems for the last 40 years, protected by 60 patents and with sales in 70 countries. AMH, a pioneer in inverter-based technologies is based out of Canada, and has been manufacturing microprocessor-controlled welding equipment for the past 25 years, supplying to more than 50 countries all over the world.
In an exclusive interview, Mr. Vishal Virmani, Director, Vinitec Automotive, talks about the rapid growth of his company in the fast-growing field of welding and collision repair. Vinitec was founded in 1971 by Mr. Vinod Kumar Virmani for the manufacture of power conditioning equipment. Three decades later, Vinitec Automotive was started by his son, Mr. Vishal Virmani, with a focus on promoting collision repair equipment and relevant training in India.
Says Mr. Vishal Virmani: “We provide a complete solution in body repair, with crash repair systems from Autorobot and welding solutions from AMH. The two companies are complementary because a crash repair system would be incomplete unless the various vehicle parts are perfectly welded and so their products go hand-in-hand.”
In just about two years since inception, this relatively new entrant in this field bagged orders from reputed dealerships of automotive giants like Tata Motors (passenger car division), Volvo, Maruti Suzuki, Honda and Nissan, thanks to the excellent performance of its products. Today, its customer base extends to over 200 across the country, which is a clear indication of the growing confidence on Vinitec, Autorobot and AMH products.
Vinitec employs about 30 persons located at strategic locations nationwide so as to provide prompt and efficient service to its customers. At its main training centre in Gurgaon, Vinitec organizes special training for OEMs. In addition, it provides a three-year unlimited on-the-job training (OJT) at the customer site. Indeed, its innovative concepts have proved to the biggest contributor to the success of the company.
In the commercial vehicle segment, Vinitec has recently made a breakthrough by supplying its welding system to Ashok Leyland’s training centre in Chennai. At the state-of-the-art training centre, the CV major has introduced the latest concepts in welding technology for its new age cabins.
With the Indian Government prohibiting the use of wooden cabins in trucks, Vinitec is optimistic about a big shift towards inverter-based welding technology that paves way for better quality cabins. In the traditional transformer-based welding, there is a limitation on the current that can be delivered at the electrode tips, whereas the inverter-based technology can deliver high currents for shorter duration of time, and hence the penetration in the new age steels such as HSS and UHSS could be as per the guidelines given by OEMs, thereby ensuring safe repair.
In addition to body repair systems, the company is next looking to provide extended solutions in dust extraction. “In the US, there is the Occupational Safety and Health (OSAH) regulation which sets the standards to govern the permissible exposure limit that a worker can be exposed to in a workshop. Hence dust extraction systems are mandatory in every bodyshop in the US and Europe. But in India we are yet to have such regulations. So, in these lines, Vinitec is in discussion with Nederman of Sweden for welding fume extraction and sanding dust extraction technologies”, explains Vishal, who is doubly confident that this technology would improve the safety and health of workers, which in turn would increase companies’ productivity.
The company is also currently working on various initiatives like vehicle fitness systems to expand its portfolio. Having clocked cumulative gross revenue of around Rs. 18 crores in the last two years, Vinitec Automotive targets an annual growth of nearly 25 per cent in the coming years.