A rising Polyurethane Success story from JCI Malaysia
A great satisfaction from JCI Malaysia: an old seat The combined efforts of Cannon’s Technical Service market in China
foaming plant - refurbished and modernised by Singaporean and Malaysian engineers have contributed a lot
Cannon Far East and partners - improved dramatically to put the machines quickly in good working condition and
their productivity, dropped scrap rate significantly and has given further confidence to the customer.
won them a raise in rating from their major clients.
Cannon Far East – with its head office based in Singapore, What can you tell us about the other booming industry, the Another satisfied customer in highly-competitive
together with its Zhongshan Shinnon, the company Automotive sector? A very old car seat foaming line made in Malaysia was not Automotive field: the building block of Cannon
established by Cannon Far East 4 years ago in Guangdong “ In 2007 the automotive sales in China reached 8.8 millions units, providing the needed output and quality requested by success!
province – have achieved great success in technologically growing at 21.84% over the year before. Almost all major car makers have
demanding sectors in China for the last two years. Johnson Controls International (JCI) Malaysia’s plant. set up production facilities in China to catch the ever increasing domestic State-of-art plants made by Cannon are used by the top producers of car seats in Far East Asia and China.
We have interviewed Mr. Wong Lee Meng, General Cannon Far East was called for a suggestion, and the case demand and big local market potential. In this respect, Cannon have been
Manager, Cannon Far East Pte Ltd for more details on this also very successful in supplying close to ten plants to the market, consisting of was evaluated with the Italian manufacturing centres
achievements. several sophisticated seating plants, steering wheel plants and interior parts for specialised in PU dosing and moulding. The proposal which
sound insulation, to top Japanese and derived included some modifications to be done by the
European car makers. The plant has customer on the mould-carrying side to handle faster cycle
been incorporated with state-of-the-art times and a new foam dosing section to be supplied by
patented process of Zero-time mould Cannon. The proposed solution was accepted by JCI, and
change system without stopping the
line and innovative solutions that implemented at the end of 2007.
produce high quality in the production
of steering wheels. The Cannon AX The foaming plant consisted of component’s tanks for
mixing heads are able to process six three polyols and one Isocyanate, all relevant high and low
components with good mixing quality, pressure pumps, extra heat exchangers, one “A-60 Servo”
and the remote-controlled nozzles that and one “A-100 Servo” machines, one Ax24 mixing head
give closed-loop control over the
foaming pressure have been widely with ReCo System for the control of pouring pressures, the
utilized to satisfy the demanding whole control system with programming table, a new
needs of the market to produce KUKA robot for the head.
different formulated foam in the same
carousel. Since the installation the new system was running well and
The CO reduction to tackle Global 2 JCI was fully satisfied with the machines performance.
Warming and the needs of energy Till now – January 2009 – the AX 24 head has achieved
saving have been in the world news Commercial displays, portable coolers for leisure time and for special
these years. Polyurethane rigid foam more than one million shots providing full customer’ applications are rapidly taking a share of the Chinese market of refrigeration.
The staff of Cannon Far East welcomes Marco Volpato, the Cannon Group's MD have been able to provide good and satisfaction about the foam quality from their special
(left) during a recent visit in Singapore Headquarters. effective insulation to building, factories, cold room storage. During the last formulation.
two years Cannon Far East have been supplying panel production technology Apart from these two traditional application market, where
to China, but also to Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. did you find further growth in China?Mr. Wong, how can you explain Cannon Far East's recent This success has helped JCI to improve the productivity by
Huntsman Polyurethane have just installed in their newly-established, “Cannon have been also successful in the specialty market in the Far successful story in one of China's most growing 33%, reduced defect cases dramatically, and obtain from
modern laboratory facilities in Shanghai, China, the latest technology of East.Just an example: when you are next riding on a train from Wuhan to businesses, the domestic refrigerators? their major customer a significant improvement of their
Cannon for panel system using Cyclopentane and other blowing agents. Guangzhou, the train will be travelling on a rail track that is being designed “In the refrigerator market we have seen exponential growth in the last
Cannon technology of SoliStream where fillers such as expandable graphite, with a special fastening system, in which a specially formulated elastomeric rating: from C to A+!two years. The top five local manufacturers, namely Haier, Hisense,
PU powder, Alumina etc that are injected into panel as a third stream to foam pad is being installed to reduce vibration, wheel-track interaction and Midea, Xinfei and Meiling command together more than 60% of the
enhance foam fire retardant properties has also aroused great interest in the noises. This special foam pad is being developed and supplied by a world-market. They have increased their production capacity tremendously: coupled
market.” renowned Austrian specialist company in this field, using Cannon patented with the recently announced Government subsidy for home appliances
process of moulding. Very soon, more and more rail tracks within China will AX, the winning head for car seats!purchases to rural farmers - targeting the ownership of each family of home
be installed with this special system. Visit us every appliances ranging from washing machine to hand phone to refrigerators - the
Another significant achievement of Cannon in the specialty field is the supply export and domestic demand has been strong and growing. In the upper
of a large elastomer machine to China. A new, innovative process will market where growth is even more significant, the local manufacturers are also
soon allow a Chinese company to re-tread large tires for earthmovers, avoiding gearing up their technology to compete with famous brands such as Bosch
any unnecessary increase in rubber use. A two-component Polyurethane day on Internet
The story is well-known, but it's worth being repeated:
the secret is in the head! A good Polyurethane foaming
Siemens, LG, Samsung, National etc. The tie up of elastomer will be injected in a mould containing the used tire, and a new tread plant starts from the head, as many other things.
Haier/Sanyo and Hisense/Whirlpool are examples of keen interest will be cast over the existing sides and substrate. The whole operation will be We get the business if the head is right, otherwise Frankly speaking, the Internet sites of the
shown by the local manufactures to actively enter into a more lucrative and much less capital intensive, less time consuming and by far more energy someone else will eventually get it. Many leading Cannon Group showed their age.
higher margin market where technology on energy saving and refrigerator efficient than the traditional rubber reconstruction. The whole process has been automotive seat's producers say that the Cannon AX is
functionality are important selling points than just price alone, as is in the case THE right head! set up by the US-based Amerityre, who is licensing the Qingdao-based We started them many years ago, when a presence on
of the medium and lower level market. Launched ten years ago, the Cannon AX multi-component Qindao Qizhou Rubber Product Co Ltd to use its innovative Internet was felt by some as a “must” simply because
Cannon Far East takes good care of the Chinese market using specialists mixing head immediately gained the attention of the major technology. The Cannon Group has been selected to supply the Polyurethane the competitors had a nice one, with a modern
from different places: the head office based in Singapore, three branches in foamers worldwide: the ability to handle six components – all metering and mixing equipment for this large projects in China and the approach. They were – they still are – full of useful
Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, and with its Zhongshan Shinnon factory; with a recirculation circuit till the mixing chamber – appealed project involved people from the Group's Units in the US, the UK, Italy and, technical information and of contact options for
this company – established by Cannon Far East four years ago in the manufacturers of multi-hardness seats, all confronted with The composition of these plants has been fine tuned in the of course, from China.“ those interested in getting in touch with us. We gave
Guangdong province to manufacture Italian technology in China – has helped the problem of handling a wide range of formulation years, and today Cannon supplies a customised version of away an invaluable amount of free data to existing
greatly the Group in achieving great success in this technologically demanding variables with frequent changes of recipe in real time. metering unit, studied for multi-component formulations: up Thank you, Mr. Wong, for these news on recent Cannon Far customers, potential ones – and to our competitors.
area. The advantages carried by this head were evident: four to five different chemicals can be handled simultaneously, with East's developments in China! These successes that we (If you look carefully what you find by Googling
During the last two years Cannon, with already a good market share in this components fed radially to the mixing chamber and two fed special cases where two heads are mounted side-by-side on the around, many of our pictures are used by cheap have had reinforce our local presence in this growing
field, have benefited and contributed greatly to this growth, taking close to axially through the small head's cleaning piston allow for an same robot arm, to handle the most complex combinations of equipment manufacturers as if they were theirs… market, and will see us strongly present into the near future models and desired foam specs.
90% of the market share during this period. We have supplied this is Internet, too). overall more compact design of the head. If two out of six and beyond! Oval carousels specially conceived and optimised for the components are fed axially then that piston can be smaller
more than thirty Penta machines, premixing systems, safety and ventilation (www.cannonfareast.com) desired production speeds are used to transport the mould The design of Chinese refrigerators has greatly improved in the past five years,
system and fixtures to the market within a short period of time. The winning Things have changed: come and see our new than if it must host six recirculation grooves, and it holds carriers, using design concepts that guarantee minimum also thanks to innovative manufacturing methods introduced by Cannon. much better the risk of possible cross-over of low-viscosity
formula for such a success has been the good reputation Cannon have built up websites! Start from www.cannon.com maintenance and reduce downtimes.fluids. If the piston is smaller, it can move faster, allowing for
over the years in terms of equipment reliability, prompt technical and spare rapid sequences of shots for complex multi-hardness pouring The computerised controls are defined according to the
parts support. This makes Cannon today the preferred supplier in this field.” patterns. In other words it's faster, it's more reliable, it's country of installation of these plants, in order to better fit
Cannon have benefited and contributed greatly to the Chinese refrigerator with the factory electronic programming habits and their spare simpler, it's more precise, lighter and smaller than other
industry growth, taking close to 90 % of the foaming equipment's market share cards inventory.competing heads.
during the last two years. Shinnon But the key point that played a decisive role in selecting That's what major companies understood
Cannon as their foaming partner for seats – and for their The advantages mentioned above provide immediate and
steering wheels, by the way! – has been the availability within keep tangible results: scrap rate decreases, foam quality increases,
the Cannon Group of dedicated staff in charge of their the product mix on the moulding line can be easily adapted to
specific business. the daily requirements, higher production rates can be
A local interface, speaking their language and expert in their growing! achieved, simpler (read: cheaper) robots can be used for the
core business, was appointed as sole interface for every head's manipulation.
negotiation and deal, and dedicated project managers were
Since these are hard facts easy to be understood who – if not a appointed in Cannon Afros for the metering and mixing
major world leader in automotive production, used to trim technology and in Cannon Tecnos for the mould carrying Shinnon, Cannon's first Chinese manufacturing
every penny from the cost of their components – can put a systems and the complex project management related with the centre created in 2005, confirmed for the fourth
value near each item? That's what they did, a few years ago, timely delivery of these large plants. These specialists work as year in a row a growth in sales and activity.
after a long time experience with other – competing – mixing a team, and provide 24/24h assistance to their counterparts
heads. They defined the practical return of choosing this head working on the same projects, to assure full satisfaction, The staff exceeded the “50” mark in Autumn,
for all of their moulding plants, and they went for Cannon. trouble-free installation of the new plants and prompt
2008 – growing with the increase of the plant's Since then a dozen of complete seat moulding plants have technical service for the existing ones.
business. been ordered to various local branches of the Cannon Group, The heads are important… and not only the steel-made
to be installed in numerous factories worldwide. ones!
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