With multinational automobile companies keen on replicating the international housekeeping models of their parent companies, the automobile industry in India today has become one of the obvious sectors for mechanised cleaning, says Puneet Mishra, General Manager, Forbes Pro, Eureka Forbes Ltd.
“During the recent past, many multinationals who are investing in establishing their manufacturing base and operations in India, have voiced the need for high international standards of hygiene and this can be achieved by mechanised cleaning,” adds Sreejith Chandran, National Sales Manager Key Accounts, Roots Multiclean Ltd.
The modern auto plant faces a lot of challenges in maintaining the desired high standards of sanitation and hygiene. The challenge starts from the main gate and it extends to the roads, assembly shop, engine shop, paint booth, welding area, warehouse, test track, canteens, R&D, offices, canteens, common areas and washrooms.
The major consumption of cleaning equipment in this industry includes scrubber driers, ride-on scrubber driers, walk-behind scrubbers, vacuum cleaners, sweepers and high pressure jets. Most of the facilities including Toyota Bangalore, Hyundai Chennai, Volkswagen & its subsidiary Gestamp in Pune, JCB, Yamaha, Hero Honda, Tata Motors, Birla Tyres, Maruti, Bosch, Toyota Kirloskar, TVS Motors, etc., are using cleaning equipment supplied by Forbes Pro-Eureka Forbes and Roots Multiclean Ltd.
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The presence of a scrubber drier in a workshop adds to its image as a clean place. Workshops are keen to present an environment akin to that of a showroom.
– Puneet Mishra
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“Sweepers are mainly being used for external cleaning of roads. The use of either walk behind or the ride on suction sweeper depends on the length of the roads. Ride on scrubber driers are used for maintaining the shopfloors, the open spaces and gang ways. In areas of space constraint, walk behind does the job.
“Walk behind or ride on sweepers are also used for cleaning warehouses and test tracks, canteens and R&D facilities. Paint shops have also installed centralised vacuum system,” explained Sreejith.
“The applications of industrial cleaning machines could be for varied purposes like collection of chips or oil or dust. Toyota has installed cleaning systems to treat specific dust producing areas. The online suction system has high vacuum and low air flow capacity. This is unlike the usual practice of using high air flow and low vacuum for collection of dust that fly and settle everywhere. In the online system, light particles of dust are arrested in air like pollution control devices using high vacuum and low air flow,” said Puneet Mishra.
Floor cleaning
Most machines procured in this industry relate to maintenance of different kinds of floors. In fact, in most automobile/automotive units, the flooring is mostly concrete or cemented Koba as it is locally called, said Sdanand Shinde, Managing Director, GlossOn Surface Solutions Pvt Ltd, specialists in surface treatment and polishing.
“Due to regular wear & tear, such floors tend to crack fast, as they are seldom cured and even if they are, it can crack when something heavy falls on them. This is mainly because the curing process involving regular cement and sand mixed together to fix a patch, is a temporary solution.
“The proven method, although expensive, involves firstly the grinding of the used floor with coarse diamond abrasives. This opens the entire pores of the concrete floor and the beton hardener applied on it enters the pores, fills them up. This strengthens the flooring, making it resistant to oil spill stains and other weathering agents. A stainer can be added for giving aesthetic value to the floor and can be coloured too. Further, grinding the floor with diamond coated resin abrasives enriches the finish to the optimum level of mirror shine or matt as required. The final result is a floor much stronger, beautiful and maintainable.”
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From the earlier days, walk behind scrubber driers have been deployed. But in the automobile industry, battery operated machines should be encouraged.
– Sreejith Chandran
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These processes can be done on heavy duty big floor grinding machines. Such machine applications are useful in the automobile industry, particularly for showroom floors where a strong floor is required to take the heavy load of stationery vehicles.
“It has been observed that these days, car showrooms are using vitrified tiles for flooring but such floors invariably tend to get scratched or cracked easily. Granite and marble floors could get slippery or stained and can get scratched easily. Added to poor maintenance practices, these floors can hold footmarks in cases of heavy traffic,” Sdanand Shinde said.
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