Rubber is one of the most useful materials known to mankind by virtue of its wide range of applications in everyday life. Since India is one of the largest producers of natural rubber, the Indian rubber industry plays a crucial role in the economy and industrial progress of the nation. Indian rubber plantations produce over 63 million tonnes of natural rubber annually, and that number is also expected to rise. The automobile industry is closely linked to the rubber industry.
A car can not function without rubber, hence without a sufficient supply of natural rubber, the wheels of the global industry will come to a grinding halt. At present the rubber industry is facing significant changes and with a colossal number of technological developments, its innovation offers exciting opportunities each and every day. As these changes and mindsets are evolving, a unique organisation comes into the picture.
Based in Mumbai, the Superbond group is uniquely positioned in the rubber industry sector with its reliable products as well as fast implementation methodology that bring huge benefits to this particular industry. In the past 60 years, with a wide range of products and distribution network spread across the country, Superbond group provides the market with the largest range of rubber parts, with over 5000 items. Earlier rubber was essentially just natural rubber, but now the industry has grown to incorporate various compounds such as EPDM, synthetic rubber and polyurethane.
With the changes in technology, engine mountings now come with circuits, electronic sensors, hydraulic oils and complex metal work. Manufacturing suspension products isno longer just about moulding the rubber, it’s a complex engineering and technology feat. In today's car market, there is a vast range of vehicles for customers to choose from. Each model also has several variants. “Back in 1989 we manufactured 300 products that encompassed the entire range of commercial as well as passenger vehicles. Now, despite having around 6000 products in our range, we are still short of products”, explains Jatinder, Director of the Superbond Group.
Because of the huge variety of vehicles coming to the market every day, the rubber parts industry is finding it difficult to manufacture products and stock the entire range. Perfectly understanding the need and requirements of customers, this organisation is arguably one of the emerging leaders in the rubber industry. They even manufacture and supply to various factories, even to their competitors who can not sustainably develop and manufacture those products.
Coming to the development of highperformance products, Superbond’s flagship brand Tech Nixis known for Hydraulic Mountings in the market. Around 15 years ago, most regular engine mountings were converted into hydraulic mountings. The job of the engine mounting is to insulate the engine’s vibration. The viscous fluid or hydraulic oil gives an additional anti-vibration function to the engine mounting and the rubber acts as an insulator.
Typically engine mountings could be made using 2 or 3 moulds, but now for some mountings, up to 15 moulds are required to complete one assembly as 15-20 products go into a single mounting, especially those for German cars because they have a very complex assembly which was a big challenge for the company.
“We did not have that technology in our factory so my father realized if we want to stay in the market then we need to grow and incorporate all these new products and technologies”, added Manraj. Hence the company has tied with various foreign companies for developing and manufacturing these items and incorporating the technology into its own plant.
Generally, the firm focuses on the availability of the product in the Indian market and makes available engine mountings be it for Tata, Maruti, Mahindra or BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, including products for some of the most expensive vehicles in the market. With their quality, the company also provides a guarantee for their products through their replacement policy which makes it unique.
Miles 'To Go'
Superbond looks forward to expanding its e-Commerce presence and looks forward to becoming a direct OEM and expanding their export market. The company looks towards the future and incorporating products for electric vehicle as rubber goes into electric cars much more than in an internal combustion vehicle. Superbond group aims to become a one-stop solution provider for its clients with advancing plans to grow both its existing and new initiatives.
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