Polartech Indias new manufacturing facility, which has capacity to blend up to 30,000 metric tons of metalworking fluid products per year, has begun production, the company announced this week.
The company said the new facility in Charlapally, Hyderabad, is a significant step up from its existing site. The 12 blending vessels and six reactor vessels are all constructed from stainless steel and mounted on state-of-the-art load cells, the company said.
Polartech spokesman Peter Richards said the company completed the initial commissioning phase of the plant Oct. 1. Full production began the week of Dec. 4. Richards said the advantages of the new facility include increased capacity, increased recipe management, load cell capability, increased reaction capability and a state-of-the-art effluent treatment and emissions abatement plant.
Since the creation of Polartech India Pvt. Ltd. in 1999 we have experienced significant year-on-year growth, which has already forced us to expand once before, said V.S.Ramanathan, sales director for Polartech India. With the completion of this project, I believe that Polartech is now positioned as a key player in the Indian metalworking fluid market.
Being able to plan and design this new facility from concept, and then to manage the project at inception through to completion was the ideal situation for us, said Roman Mikolajewicz, operations manager for Polartech Group. Not only did it allow Polartech to build a site that was based on the design principles of Vaastu Shastra, one of the traditional Hindu principles of town planning and architecture, but it also allowed us to build in specific efficiencies that would have been impossible if we had been adapting an existing structure.
In 2003, Polartech India decided that it needed to commission a new manufacturing site to cope with the companys continued growth. Work started early that year to find a location, and within six months Polartech India procured a site for the project. Building work commenced in late 2004 with the Polartech team holding a ceremony at the laying of the first foundation. The company held a much larger ceremony last year when it completed building work.
Polartech Ltd. is a Manchester, England-based company specializing in the supply of metalworking fluids, packages, additives, related products and formulatory expertise to lubricant and chemical companies worldwide. Richards said Polartech sells its products exclusively to the lubricants industry on a business-to-business basis.
Richards said metalworking and metal processing fluids form a large part of the Polartech portfolio, although many of the additives have applicability in fields such as leather processing, offshore fluids, water based hydraulics and industrial cleaners.