SANDHAR COMPONENTS BAWAL Unit-I

Plant visit - 3

Report submitted by :- Ankush Sood

 SANDHAR COMPONENTS BAWAL UNIT-I
On 18th march 2019 we started our third plant visit i.e. Sandhar Technologies Bawal
Unit – I, Mr Ajay ragav is plant head of Bawal Unit –I. This plant is started in 2011.
At first we meet with Deputy general manager Mr.V.K Yadav, he elaborate the plant
layout in brief, They Design and develop the high pressure die casting, about 45 % of
business comes from TVS Motors, 10-20% comes from non-automotive company i.e.
Havel’s , other customer are Royal Enfield and Yamaha motors.Our visit was held
under the supervision of Mr. Gurjot and Akshit.

Department we visited:-

1. NEW PRODUCT AND DEVELOPMENT

2. MACHINE SHOP-1
3. PRESSURE DIE CASTING DEPARTMENT
4. MACHINE SHOP-2
5. PAINT SHOP
6. PACKAGING DEPARTMENT
NEW PRODUCT AND DEVELOPMENT:-

First drawing is received through customer and then NPD team inspects the part
drawing thoroughly weather it is permissible range of manufacturing or not. After that
they started tool design of part. UG Nx software is used to prepare CAD model for
tool design. After the designing they will do outsource Mold Flow Analysis of Tool.

Two type of Aluminum grade is used in this Unit :-

1. ADC-12
Aluminum alloys (ADC12) consist of Aluminum - Copper - Silicon have high
mechanical properties and good castability, so these alloys have been used for
automotive parts with complicated shapes, e.g.:- Crank Case, Clutch Hub,
Break drum hub and lighting panel.
2. ADC-6
It is also an Aluminum alloys (ADC6) consist of Aluminum - Magnesium
which offer good corrosion resistance. However, these alloys do not have high
castability that’s the main reason ADC-6 have less application. Mainly used
for foot rest part.

MACHINE SHOP:-

Al Die Molds are prepared in Machine shop-1 with the help of CNC machines and
non-traditional machining. They outsource the Mold-base and do only core and cavity
machining In-house only.
Delcam is the software used by CNC programmer, at first they do rough machining
on core & cavity and send it for Case Harding upto 46-48 hrc, and then do the final
machining. Carbide cutting tools are used for machining.

Material used for Core and Cavity: - Hot die Steel (This alloy is one of the Hot Work,
Chromium type tool steels which contains molybdenum and vanadium as
strengthening agents)

The following machine we saw at Machine Shop-1

 CNC MACHINE

 EDM MACHINE

 WIRE CUT MACHINE

 EDM DRILL MACHINE

CNC MACHINE- CNC, machines are operated via numerical control program. The
language behind CNC machining is G-code (stands for motion of tool path) and
M-code (stands Machine code such as coolant, tool changes etc.)
EDM MACHINE- Electro Discharge Machining (EDM) is a non-traditional
machining process, whereas electrical energy is used to generate electrical spark and
material remove due to the spark energy. EDM is basically used for machined
difficult geometries which are not possible with CNC machines.

Two type of Electrode is used in EDM machine:-

 Copper (for good surface finish & useful in small cavity where it is difficult to
polish)
 Graphite (for extremely fine and superior surface finish, easy to machine)

Sparkonix EDM is used by Bawal Plant.

WIRECUT MACHINE- It is also a non-traditional machining process, Here a thin

metal wire (mainly brass having Ø0.25 mm) is fed through the pre-hole workpiece
and submerged in a tank of dielectric fluid. Wire-cut EDM is typically used to cut
plates as thick as 300mm to make tools, and punches for dies from hard metals that
are difficult to machine with other methods.

Sodick fixed jet wirecut machine is used by them.

EDM DRILL MACHINE- EDM Drilling machine used to drill micro holes having
more than 200 mm depth by a thin Brass electrode (dia upto 0.1 mm) at a very high
speed those are difficult to machine with other methods.

PRESSURE DIE CASTING DEPARTMENT:-

In casting department there is a big tower furnace (Furnteck's tower furnace having
capacity 2 ton) to melt aluminum ingot for die casting machines. This big furnace is
shut down only when if there is a more than 48 hours or two days holiday otherwise
they will run it 24 hours a day because the consumption of electricity to start the
furnace until the metal is melt is very high. The temperature they maintained is about
750°c.

Degassing of Aluminium-

Before using the melted aluminium there will be a degassing process, used to remove
impurities from molten metal. Because when aluminium is casted there will be some
impurities which can create weak points in the product so it is necessary to do
degassing of aluminium.
Process: - It’s a rotating impeller of graphite from which nitrogen gas is passed in to
the liquid aluminium, Nitrogen carried the impurities in the form of bubbles. Argon is
also effective, but because of high cost nitrogen is preferred.

They also reused the material with 60/40 ratio and verified material properties by a
butter sample. Procedure for butter sample is :-
First molten metal is poured in a butter sample cavity and placed it into the Vacuum
chamber. After solidifying the butter sample if it shows concave top face it is reusable
otherwise not. Because in concave face of butter sample, there is no such impurities in
the molten metal.

OK Sample NOT OK Sample

There is 20 Cold chamber die casting machine varying with tonnage capacity from
120 to 530. All die casting machines are rrobotic arms to handle molten metal.

Process- It is a metal casting process that is characterized by forcing molten metal

under the high pressure into a mold cavity.The products obtained from casting are
unfinished and oversize.

MACHINE SHOP -2 :-

After casting, Parts are need to be machined to provide smooth sealing surfaces,
threading and fitment diameters and holes as per drawing. In the machine shop cast
part to be machine is a biggest challenge to them for meeting the customer
specification.
For machining them, they used 7 SPM (Special purpose machine) and 3 CNC
machine.

Before send to the pain shop, Part goes with Shot Blasting process. It is a surface
treatment process using high velocity steel abrasive. It is used for a surface protection
and also prior-preparation of surfaces prior to further processing, such as welding,
coloring, etc.
PAINT SHOP: Chain conveyor mechanisms were used to handle the components.
Products are painted manually with the help of sprayers operated by air compressors.

The primer is the first coat to be applied used for protects the vehicle from corrosion
and improves ease of application by making it easier for paints to stick to the surface.

The base coat is applied after the primer coat. This coat contains the visual properties
of color and effects. They used automotive based Nerolac paint

If necessary third coat is sprayed on top of a colored basecoat, third coat is a glossy
and transparent coating that forms the final interface with the environment. For this
reason, this coat must be durable enough to resist abrasion and chemically stable
enough to withstand UV light.

PRE-DISPATCH INSPECTION AND PACKING DEPARTMENT:-

Finally finished and painted products are packed here and once again critical
parameters of finished goods are checked by pressure gauge. After packing goods are
sent to storage unit in order to dispatch to the customers as per their orders.

KEY LEARNINGS AFTER VISITING BAWAL UNIT -I

1. Know about degassing of aluminium and how check reuse aluminium

properties.
2. How to paint automotive parts.