18
20th for Pugh and Sanders
Lisi sets up second
Chinese factory
This year Pugh and Sanders Ltd Recent installation of SAP Business
celebrates its 20th year of successful One as the business IT system has Lisi Automotive Shanghai was officially set up on 1
trading as a specialist supplier of streamlined all parts of the business April as a subsidiary of the a Hong Kong based JV
industrial threaded fasteners. ready for substantial growth in the next
established in 2007 between Lisi Automotive (75%)
The business started in August 1988 five years.
and Shanghai Yankang Automotive Components Ltd
and from small beginnings now Sales manager Jeremy Pugh
(25%).
operates three stock holding depots comments:” The success of this business
The Shanghai plant employs 100 people and has a
across Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The is about looking after customers and
turnover of 3 million euros. Cold forged screws and nuts
company turnover is now in access of attending to detail plus the support of
are supplied to Lisi Automotive component supplier
£2M and it employs 22 people. some very good suppliers”
customers in China. Lisi already has a Beijing factory
producing spring steel components. Shanghai Yankang is
FERA Seminar reviews
part of the Jiehua Group, which has a 46 million euro
turnover.
Cr6-free coatings
On 13 April the Fastener Engineering and Research
Taiwan fastener makers set
Association held a seminar to review experiences and
issues since the implementation of the ELV Directive in
July 2007, making the elimination of coatings containing
up in Philippines
Cr6 mandatory. The speakers were a fastener user, a
coating supplier, and a coating sub-contractor.
The main speaker at the meeting was Burghard Werthe,
Multi-Tek Fasteners & Parts in total, with an ultimate workforce of
of Volkswagen Light Commercial Vehicles, Hannover, who is
Manufacturer Corp. and Fwu Kuang 1,000, 300 of whom are expected to
widely acknowledged as one of the top fastener
Enterprises Co. Ltd were responsible be hired in the first year. Fwu Kuang’s
technologists in Europe, and has been greatly involved in the
for two significant projects in the socket screw plant is expected to cost
implementation of Cr6-free coatings in VW. Herr Werthe
Philippines last year according to the US$10 million over the first 3 years of
claimed that there are 40 million bolted joints tightened
Manila Economic and Cultural Office. operation.
daily in the 30 VW factories around the world. The average
Each invested around US$5 million Total investment inflow from Taiwan
assembly time per joint is about 10 seconds, and the total in plants at the Clark Freeport Zone, reached US$782 million in 2007.
fastener assembly time for a typical car is about 2 hours. north of Manila. The Multi-Tek project
Hence VW regard the tightening of bolts as a major issue in is expected to be worth US$30 million
assembly, and anything that disturbs production times is
unwelcome.
Herr Werthe reported major problems with fastener
tightening since the change in coatings. Issues of high Sundram said to be
torques, low clamp loads, stick slip, and thread non-
conformance all occurred during the introduction of the new
coatings. Although there have been major improvements,
expanding international
there are still significant problems, particularly with fastener
from the Far East and Italy. VW’s conclusion is that there are
very few fastener producers that test each batch under
operations
conditions similar to production assembly. Testing with a two
stage process is essential, with a high run-down speed Indian media is quoting an unnamed senior source in Sundram Fasteners as
followed by tightening at about 20rpm, but unfortunately
saying the company plans major investment in its Chinese high tensile fastener
this is not widely done.
plant, and also in the UK’s Cramlington Precision Forge and Germany’s Peimer
Following this, Clive Pearce of Dacral talked about the
Unformtechnik.
changes made to the Geomet range of Cr-free coatings in
The report claims TVS Group will invest up to US$20million – a figure not confirmed
order to overcome user problems, and Andrew Bliss of
by the company. Sundram Fasteners (Zhejiang) Ltd is reported to have received
Anochrome Group discussed the range of coatings that they
provide. The slides used in these presentations can be found
US$9million investment to date, with indications this will reach US$12m ‘over a
on the FERA website, www.fera.org.uk
period of time’.
Wenzhou fastener factories fall by third since 2005
Wenzhou Fastener Association has reported that the number of fastener factories in the region has dropped by nearly 1,000 over the
past three years.
When the association was founded three years ago its research indicated there were 3,000 factories producing over RMB 10 billion annually. An
updated survey has revealed the sharp fall.
Deputy secretary of the Association, Jiang Huilong, argued that the change is a healthy one in that many of the companies to disappear were
small scale family concerns, often producing in or around residential accommodation, which have closed as these city areas have been renovated.
Jiang also cites acquisition by larger companies and growing environmental pressures as significant factors in the consolidation process. Profits and
the image of the Wenzhou industry are improving, according to Jiang, with less ‘counterfeit and inferior goods’ being produced.
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