Balzers, Liechtenstein, 27 March 2017 – At its site in Pune, Oerlikon Balzers is continuing to invest in its business in India with plant renovations and facilities featuring the latest generation of tool coating technology. This expansion of the facilities has been planned with an additional focus on sustainability and energy efficiency.
Marc Desrayaud, Head of BU Balzers Industrial Solutions, at the opening ceremony.
Able to accommodate workpieces higher than one metre and with a turning diameter of 96 cm, as well as batch weights of up to 3,000 kg, the INNOVENTA mega guarantees high throughput and is an ideal platform for coating large forming tools or saw blades.
Oerlikon Balzers commissioned the plant in Pune in 1994, its first site in India. Over the years, demand has grown for its high-end coatings and pre/post-treatment processing. At the same time, however, Oerlikon Balzers has introduced a range of innovations to the market. To meet the growing demands of the Indian market, production capacity is being increased using the latest generation of coating systems. The incorporated Customer Solutions Centre develops specialized solutions for the South East Asia area and tests coatings for the Indian and global market.
Oerlikon Balzers is demonstrating its commitment to sustainability by equipping the coating centre with solar panels, which generate enough “green” electricity for all the offices and a considerable amount of the production area.
This significant investment in the future and in the Indian market allows Oerlikon Balzers to serve its customers from various industries – primarily tool manufacturers, but also businesses in the aviation, oil and gas, medical, textile and machining industries – more quickly and efficiently and to provide them with a greater range of products. “The high-output INNOVENTA mega coating system we have commissioned in Pune allows us to offer our customers new coatings for large forming tools, as well as giving us additional capacity for machining tools – and all this with significantly reduced delivery times”, says Pravin Shirse, General Manager of Oerlikon Balzers India.
In Pune, this expansion means that the innovative BALIQ generation of coatings is now available, which is based on the S3p (Scalable Pulsed Power Plasma) technology developed by Oerlikon Balzers. This technology combines the advantages of the sputtering and arc evaporation coating processes to produce coatings with extreme wear resistance and ultra-high smoothness. Since being introduced in 2013, the BALIQ family of coatings has been successively expanded to meet the demands of particular applications.
Marc Desrayaud, Head of Oerlikon Balzers Industrial Solutions, explained in his speech at the opening ceremony: “We are not just investing in our coating centres in India to meet the demands of the market. We are also well aware of our social responsibilities, and this represents our active contribution to environmental and industrial safety.” In total, Oerlikon Balzers operates eight customer centres on the Indian subcontinent (worldwide it has over 100), meaning it is closer to its customers than any other supplier.
On the morning of the same day, Desrayaud officially opened a new vocational training centre in Salumbre, around 30 km from Pune. Oerlikon Balzers has participated in the set-up of this centre as a further social and technological investment into the Indian market, and as a commitment after 23 years of common history. In his speech at the opening ceremony he made reference to the long tradition of vocational training at Oerlikon Balzers, which began with its founding in 1946 in Balzers itself and has now produced more than 1,400 fully trained specialists. “The technology is developing in leaps and bounds, and we need enthusiastic young people who are not afraid to ask questions, push the boundaries of technology and take on new challenges. They will be crucial in shaping our future.” The same future will show how many of the students will join Oerlikon Balzers after their diploma bringing their know-how and engagement.