ALLIED INDUSTRIES
The Switzerland-based Blaser Swisslube, which develops, produces and sells high-quality metalworking fluids plans to tap more customers with its innovative products. The company has subsidiaries and general agencies in more than 60 countries, including In
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Q: What are all the advantages of liquid tool offered by you?
Blaser: This is a value tool which increases customer’s productivity. It is very safe to use and easy to apply. Our liquid tool is of high quality and enhances the performance. Our products work upon higher cutting performance with the help of better lubricity in coolants and cutting oils. It is generally noticed that the cutting tool cost is much higher than the coolant cost on all CNC machines and hence as a concept, we focus on maximising tool performance. The net saving effect can be much higher than the oil cost.
Q: Most of the component makers have started using composite materials and light weight materials. But there are tough challenges in using these materials in the machining industry. How do you support that?
Blaser: First of all we are testing all the materials. The trend towards light weight materials usually resolves the fuel efficiency problem. But it is very difficult to machine the materials. The tooling needs, the coolant and everything has to be taken care of. Though it is complex, it is necessary to have right materials, right solutions with right cutting strategies. We give guarantee to the automotive component suppliers that if they work with us they reduce cost. We are working with machine builders and tool builders by giving them the right solutions.
Q: Manufactures also use forging to reduce weight of the component. This gives less scope of machining, so how do you see the trend?
Blaser: Yes, there are automotive suppliers who forge components. But forging also needs to be machined and it occurs more in finishing operations. Machining operations are still required to have the required surface finish and quality of the product. Only for certain operations, dry machining is sensible. So we dont see a threat there.
Q: Machine builders are offering coolant-free solutions. In that case where do you find business if it is going to be in a big way?
Blaser: There are tool manufacturers who are currently readdressing certain works which are dry machined. This initiative is driven by German market but even with dry machining minimum quantity of lubrication should be in place to prevent corrosion. The investment is a little huge with chips being bought outside for dry machining. Holistically dry machining is not advisable but partially yes dry machining has a whip hand.
Q: Water-based coolants are prone to bacterial infection which will in turn affect the components. Do you have any technology to get rid of this?
Blaser: For over 40 years, we have product technology which is bacteria-free. We basically try to learn from nature. Our product line is designed to work more naturally. It does accept bacteria but makes sure that the bacteria which get multiplied are harmless. We have microbiological department and also we do DNA research to create formulation which supports natural equilibrium. Also we are working on certain
techniques to mitigate bacterial multiplication.
Q: In order to comply with the global standards how do your products help them achieve more productivity with zero defect?
Blaser: All our products are formulated in such a way that they deliver best performance with defined processes and defined set of materials. There may be a need to bring the US technology to the Indian market to address specific challenges and requirements. Every Indian company has to handle these challenges. Our products and formulations will certainly address them and increase productivity.
Q: What is your road map for the next 5 years?
Blaser: The manufacturing base in India is constantly growing. We would like to bring global solutions and not any specific solutions for India alone. When you look at the automotive industry, many of the companies from Europe and Japan are setting up plants in India and give sustainable global standard solutions. We have been running our business successfully in India for the past 12 years. We would like to invest more in technical expertise and the trend would grow in the same way.
Q: What kind of investments are you planning in India?
Blaser: India is an emerging market where we plan to bring all the global initiatives. As such we are not in a plan to invest in R&D in India but we would like to bring the global technology to India.
Q: While looking at Indian market what are the products you plan to bring in?
Blaser: We are planning to bring more environment-friendly products to the Indian market. A lot of industries like automotive and medical have big scope in India. We would like to contribute for those industries in India.