This document nominates a team from the Pune plant for the Chairman Award 2008 for their project to refurbish a discarded hot melt extruder. The team saved the company Rs. 5.5 million in capital expenditures by refurbishing the machine for Rs. 1.5 million instead of purchasing a new one for Rs. 7 million. Refurbishing the machine allowed the company to acquire new business worth Rs. 60 million and maintain a competitive advantage in the air filter segment. The nomination document provides details of the project, including the process followed to refurbish the machine and integrate new control systems. It is recommended that the team be recognized for their efforts in taking on the challenge of refurbishing the extruder to

1. MFSI Recommendation
Chairman Award 2008
Plant - Pune
1 © MAHLE

2. Chairman Award Nomination
Project Team
MR. Rajesh Kakkar
Director Plant Operation
Project Guide
MR. Suryakant Palande MR. Kishore Patil MR. Uday Deshmukh
Technical Head Manager Mfg. Engineering Asst. Manager Mfg. Engineering
2 © MAHLE

3. Chairman Award Nomination
Nomination
Nominee Name : Team : Suryakant Palande / Kishore Patil / Uday Deshmukh
Under Guidence of : Rajesh Kakkar
Age : 44 / 35 / 32
Designation : Technical Head / Manager ME / Asst. Manager ME
Deptt : Manufacturing Engineering
Experience : 24 / 15 / 11 Years
Project Undertaken : Inhouse Refurbishment of discarded / written off machine
( Hot Melt Extruder )
Project Started : October – 2007
Project Ended : February – 2008
Cost Recovery : Rs 7.0 M would have cost for a new equipment.
Spent Rs 1.5 M on refurbishment.
Executed new Business worth 60 M and Saved Rs 5.5 M
3 © MAHLE

4. Chairman Award Nomination
Project Details
Issue
Hot Melt glue dispensing machine required for new “Panel Type” PU Air filters
with cured media and co-polyester hot melt. Most crucial factor was MELTING
TEMP of 225°C as against normal temperature of 180°C.
Customers
TATA Motors (2.2 CRDI and ACE) / MARUTI SUZUKI (Swift diesel)
Impact
• Able to acquire and execute new business worth Rs. 60M
• Capex Saving Rs. 5.5 M
• Maintained competitive advantage in Air filter segment
Year 2008
Trigger
a. New business opportunity
b. Capex limitation. Poor Pay back with initial volumes
c. Availability of written off asset and in-house skill set
4 © MAHLE

5. Chairman Award Nomination
Project Details contd....
Process Adopted
In view of the CAPEX constraints and not to loose potential business with prime OEs like TML
and MUL an old non-moving (written off) extruder (MELTEX German make) was identified for
refurbishment under guidance of Mr Rajesh Kakkar.
German counterpart strongly recommended to scrap the extruder and go for new Investment.
Extruder manufacturer refused to provide any type of technical help / support.
There was a potential risk of loosing investment of 1.5 M in case of failure however the team
took the challenge.
5 © MAHLE

6. Chairman Award Nomination
Project Details contd....
Electrical and mechanical parts were checked
Extrusion screw found damaged
Gear box of Main Motor was found to be worn out
Before
Refurbishment
Conventional 8 segment temperature controller for hoses,
application heads and screw zones were non functioning
Screw and Pump motor drive found to be non functioning
Electrical panel was beyond repair due to unavailability
of spares as the model was out dated
6 © MAHLE

7. Chairman Award Nomination
Project Details contd....
Extrusion screw and gear box repaired. Parts were manufactured
locally by taking reference from damaged sample parts.
New Lenz drives were installed for screw and pump motor
Electrical hard wiring was minimised by using Siemens S7 300 PLC
with solid state relays for heaters
After Control panel was made user friendly by using Siemens OP207 touch screen panel.
Refurbishment This helps in problem diagnosis and controlling of various parameters.
PID control loop was used for min-max glue pressure setting.
This dispenses constant and equal glue quantity.
Pleating machine and extruder pump were synchronised (Tacho-generator
feedback) to achieve metered glue dispensing quantity w.r.t. paper pleating speed.
Man and machine safety inter locks were added
which were not there on the original equipment.
7 © MAHLE

8. Chairman Award Nomination
Project Details contd....
Project Status
Equipment is in use for production on 2 shift basis since March 2008
Production Capacity
3800 filters / shift
Output
Machine has produced more than 480,000 PU elements since March 2008 till date
Delivery
100 % delivery against customer requirement in 2008
Quality
Metered glue dispensing resulted in consistent quality and reduction in Internal scrap
(COPQ)
8 © MAHLE

9. Chairman Award Nomination
Project Details contd.... After
Special Thanks to;
- Lenze Mechatronics India
- Kletti Germany
- Siemens India
- Swaraj Automation
9 © MAHLE

10. Chairman Award Nomination
Recommendation
The Nominee team :
Took challenge to refurbish old extruder in-house because Meltex, Germany / Nordson, India
refused for reconditioning of Extruder and strongly recommended to go for a new one.
Noteworthy efforts were taken for restructuring of Electrical & Electronic Hardware as every
components had special purpose application.
Hybridization of Critical Imported components with Indian branded product for cost
optimization.
Mechanical parts for Extrusion screw / Gear box were manufactured locally.
Several experiments / trials were conducted for synchronization of Signal converters for Hot
melt Pressure & temperatures.
Efforts were taken to achieve precise control for process parameters like uniform hot melt
dispensing quantity at constant pressure.
All experiments / trials / fine tuning were possible only in hot condition of machine.
Latest technological hardware's – Like Siemens PLC / Siemens Touch screen / Lenze drive
ensured safety / user friendly operation / cycle time reduction & quality improvement.
Achieved ease of operating and PM of equipment. Also resulted in increased productivity
with minimum internal scrap.
10 © MAHLE

11. Chairman Award Nomination
Thank You
11 © MAHLE