Rapidly changing customer demands are prompting companies to come up with innovative car wheel designs. Set-up with an initial capacity to roll out 90,000 units per month in 2016, Minda Kosei Aluminium Wheels underwent a capacity ramp-up last year to serve the growing alloy wheel demand in India. Auto Tech Review recently visited the company’s Bawal facility to know more about its manufacturing capabilities.
INTRODUCTION
A 70-30 joint venture between Uno Minda Group and Japan-based Kosei Group, Minda Kosei Aluminium Wheels Ltd (MKAWL) was inked in May 2015, and a year later – in May 2016 – the company set-up its first facility in Bawal to cater to the alloy wheel requirements for Maruti Suzuki India’s passenger car portfolio with an initial capacity of 90,000 units per month. MKAWL’s Bawal facility currently operates across three shifts and rolls out around 4,000 alloy wheels per day, with radius size in the range of 13 to 17 inches. VP Singh, VP – Operations Head, MKAWL said 15 and 16 inch radius sizes of alloy wheels contribute around 50 % of the company’s volumes.
MKAWL primarily imports alloys certified under A3562 nomenclature of American Society for Testing of Materials (ASTM) from trusted vendors of Kosei. The alloy mixture used is a blend of aluminium, magnesium, silicon, titanium, strontium and titanium in the form of bricks. MKAWL has installed eight melting furnaces that operate at a temperature of 670-680 °C to melt alloy bricks into liquid metal. Aluminium has the tendency to react with atmospheric oxygen, thus liquid nitrogen is passed through the molten material for degassing operation, Singh said.
The MKAWL top official said this passing of nitrogen is helpful towards removing unwanted gases from the alloy and make the material more robust for production. Each melting furnace is powered by CNG to reduce conventional fuel consumption and is assigned with one person, who manually pours the metal into two dies simultaneously. The casting procedure of one alloy wheel in a die is completed in five minutes, following which the wheel is transferred to heat treatment furnace on a conveyor. Singh said the facility is also equipped with an X-ray lab to maintain in-house quality and conducts random checks on the wheel casted out of a die.
MACHINING PROCESS
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