Witmans Advanced Fluids is a complete metalworking fluids solution partner for Indian industries with a clear focus on value addition in every range of products for every stage of the processes. Witmans Advanced Fluids Private Limited (WAF) is a part of Witmans Industries Limited, a market leader in the textile oils domain for over three decades.
As a company, Witmans Advanced Fluids is relatively young as compared to other established players. Machine Maker spoke to Santosh Chakraborty, Managing Director, WAF about the journey, its solutions and what makes WAF a brand to reckon with when it comes to processing fluids. “Two years ago myself with the two other Directors of Witmans Industries wanted to diversify our business into the area with differentiation and we started this company Witmans Advanced Fluids”, shares Mr. Chakraborty.
But within such a short period WAF has carved its place as a highly recognized MWF partner, Mr. Chakraborty said. WAF also brings several global know-how and its products to the Indian market through its joint venture partnerships with European companies in the specialty fluids area. WAF offers a whole lot of applications based specialized products, out of which, some specialized REACH compliant products are imported from its partners while other products are manufactured locally.
WAF is equipped with two world-class manufacturing facilities located at Daman and Wada backed by a locally available highly experienced team for sales and R&D
Total Cost of Ownership
WAF’s major business vertical is the metalworking fluid of all types starting from basic forging lubrications to heat treatment complete range, till very high value-added water-miscible products, Neat Cutting oils, Rust Preventing oils, etc. The water-miscible products consume four to five times less and have up to 70% greater tool life, making the coolant almost cost-free. The neat oils generate negligible mist and smoke and have higher life at higher parameters. The forming products need less cleaning time, while the forging products have a better spread even in the case of difficult shapes.
The heat treatment products give a brighter surface, reducing after process costs and increasing value. Other than that WAF has also forayed into segments such as automotive oils, industrial paints and zero liquid discharge waste treatment solution
Current Scenario
WAF’s solutions are aligned with the vision of Make in India, and to empower Indian manufacturing. Its metalworking fluids are gradually becoming an irreplaceable part of manufacturing processes. Our metal segment has seen significant inroads in India and Bangladesh against decades-old established global competition. However, “With the decline in the automotive segment, our business has been impacted. New entries are helping but with lower volumes request, new products are taking longer to enter”, says Mr. Chakraborty.
Entry into customer spaces has become very challenging. With a drop in existing volume, diversion to new vendors needs more meat on the bone. This is a challenge to our experienced team and customers will experience the real strength of the product and people now
Moreover, there is a sales price pressure due to lower production. Our premium or fit for purpose brands is doing the same job for customers, “ save overall cost and add some extra value” by reducing significant consumption, enhancing life, critical tool life enhancement or solving critical issues to reduce rejections”, he adds. “This is where the challenge lies in coming months where one must show a physical cost reduction for consumable and eliminate hurdles”, he feels.
Value Addition
While the going has become tough, WAF is following its philosophy of value addition irrespective of any serious slowdown in some business segments. “When we started our thought was, what do we offer to the customers which they will see as a value amidst several existing good MNCs, The message to every employee is simple, ask yourself as a customer, why will you deal with WAF when you have a good one in hand,” he says.
“For example, if we are supplying a forging product, we try to give a higher solid content than what is available in the market so that the consumption can be low with similar performance, the flow can be better to intricate part, giving a higher die life.’ He adds, “If we are supplying neat cutting oil, we ensure mist and smoke are very low. So, the top-up goes down and the operator can get a very good working environment.”
He further informed, “Likewise, if we are offering heat treatment products, we are offering the customer a lower cracking/distortion rate and rejection, brighter surface, etc. So, the bottom line is every product we have developed, make sure we add some value.”
For the price-sensitive Indian market, value addition does not come cheap, hence more often than not it finds no takers. However, WAF tailors its products in the best cost-effective manner. WAF is quite successful in creating awareness with its customers about the impact of opting value over price
“In an upturn or downturn market, the customer looks either at productivity and cost-saving. when an SME is buying cheapest soluble oil from the market place and the life is the only a couple of weeks, we are offering the same segment product with performance-enhancing extreme pressure additive with better stability giving more out of every unit”, he says.
Because of WAF’s unique approach even the tier three customers are getting additional benefits by adopting value-added solutions. “In this market, if we can go and present our values to the customers in a proper manner, explain to the customer what value they get, I think we will get our share”, Mr. Chakraborty says confidently.
“In the forging and forming area, natural graphite dominates the market because that is the best lubrication available even today. Due to cleanliness concerns, customers are asking if we can offer synthetic products, typically known as white products”, shares Mr. Chakraborty. Now the question is, are we ready to pay the price for these high performing synthetics?
If synthetic products have to perform like natural graphite, we have to add a lot of additives and the cost goes very high and auto components manufacturing companies are not ready to pay the price”, he explains.
“So, we have come up with a low-cost version synthetic product which we have started pushing into the market. But all applications and complex geometries cannot be replaced by those white products. There are some applications where still graphite is the only solution. So, I think it will take some time until further alternatives are developed. 70:30 could be natural graphite vs. synthetic going forward” he says.
WAF products have added advantage as they have a low consumption rate, giving cost benefits to the customers. In forming oils, the products we supply consumes less. In Die casting our dilution ratios are higher and still get a better die life. Similar results are observed in Stamping and forming oils.
The products have received approval from the major associations like the German automotive association, Mercedes Benz and many others. WAF has plans to promote its automotive body stamping oils in the market with such approvals. “We will leverage those approvals of automotive companies for body forming oils in India”, he says.
On being asked about the shift in the lubrication industry, Mr. Chakraborty opines that the industry is shifting from conventional soluble lubrications. “As disposal cost is going up, pollution control norms are getting stricter, a lot of operations are getting into dry machining. For example, Gear machining has gone into dry machining. Besides, mist lubrication and fewer top-ups are also gaining traction.”
“The new generation products are finding their ways into the industry through these routes. The shift is definitely happening. For example, 15-20 years back, almost 80 percent market was soluble oil, today it is below 50%. Rests are low to moderate oil contained semi-synthetic oil. Our oil-free, completely new additive base products are going to be a game-changer with very low consumption, high in performance and very high sump life” he adds.
I see that in the coming years, because of stricter pollution norms more companies using semi-synthetic and higher-value-added products with long sump life which are biostable and safe. We hope that we will be catching up with Europe in terms of changeover but it will still take a longer time than expected. I think the next 5-10 years the transition will be much faster than what we have seen in the last 10 years.
Extreme pressure additives keep coolants or lubricant stable & performing even in the high-temperature area and give higher tool life. But the fact is only a few companies use EP additive in fit for purpose products because it is very costly and it increases the cost.
High oil product is supposed to be the cheapest solution in the market in which tier III and IV users use very regularly in the shop. He adds, “But we make sure that even in the lowest price product we add high-quality esters to add that little extra for our customers”.
Safety
Coolant and lubrication as products are used for mitigating extreme heat conditions in machining areas apart from keeping processes smooth and hazard-free. But even in lubrication manufacturing, there are some RMs required which can pose a threat to the safety and WAF takes care of that with the help of our local R&D.
As the safety of the users is concerned, a lot of Raw Material used in India which are not restricted here but banned in Europe. We avoid using many of them to have a safe environment
“There are some flammable solvents required for rust preventive oils. We have a separate plant for that with all fire protective measures”, he informs. Other than standard PPEs, WAF also educates and trains its team for health and safety regularly. For ensuring safety in some operation, WAF offers fire-resistant hydraulic fluids in the market instead of standard hydraulic oil which helps avoid fire hazards in the hot application areas like die casting or furnaces.
In water-miscible product, normally the pH of all the soluble products are 9 and above in India. So, 9.5 is standard while some of the semi-synthetic products go up to 9.8 -10. And they immediately attack the human skin and machine paints. He adds, “Imagine an unskilled operator using those products on grinding machines not even using any gloves, their hands & skin gets immediately affected.”
WAF offers products which work at high parameters and delivers very high performance, but pH remains at 7.6 to 7.8. like water. So, despite repetitive handling of the coolant, operator skin remains in good shape, so do the health of machines.
WAF neat cutting oils come with minimum mist and smoke. Means, even in a semi-closed environment health hazard is low, less risk of fire and lower consumption. “So, those are the kind of safety and values we have brought in, other than just saving the cost for the owners. From the health and safety point of view operators love our products wherever we have put them”, he says.
Future Roadmap
WAF is only one and a half-year-old company in the market. As a new entrant, it has already introduced a few products in the market which have 4-5 times lesser consumption. 50-70 percent higher tool life which is significant.“People start saving from day one with added value when they use our products”, he asserts.
Highlighting some competitive advantages of WAF products he cites, “We are presently carrying out multiple tests where we have already replaced very high performing oil from Europe because of no mist no smoke, almost negligible top up & significant-high tool life.”
Our forming products also need very less cleaning post-operation; our forging products give better die life with lower consumption, our heat treatment products give better surface quality and very less cracking, reducing the rejection, distortion, giving better value to the end customers due to brighter surface.
So far, WAF has launched more than 150 products already and in every new development, the prime focus has been application-specific value addition which gives WAF an edge over its competitors. “For the future, we will continue with this philosophy which is our strength. We would also like to reach at least 10 percent market share in the next three years”, he signs off.
For more details, visit www.wafindia.com
