Rim Polymer Industries looks to expand out of Asia

Rim Polymer Industries is based in Singapore. The machinery maker has been supplying lines to rigid foamers in Asia as part of the Montreal Protocol Agreement on climate change as well as selling equipment to car makers in China, Korea, India and the US. Simon Robinson visited the firm.

Machinery companies come in many different shapes and sizes. And offer different solutions to different sectors of the market.

RIM Polymer machines are sold under the GMA brand. ”Our biggest market is China, where we focus on the automotive industry and also appliance industry,” said Steven Hoong, Deputy General Manager (Sales).

Solar water heaters are also an important part of RIM's output, "we are one of the top suppliers in China," he said.

Refrigeration opportunity

“In the appliance industry, the big customers are the Hisense and the Midea group. They are my key customers,” explains Hoong. In the past three to four years, RIM has developed new machinery for them. These are the firm’s three-in-one and four-in-one polyol pre-mix equipment.

Hoong explained that with the introduction of appliances blown only with Pentane, in 1993, there was no competitiveness between appliances, “so five years ago we started to introduce new equipment called three-in-one to our GMA range.” He added that this enables the base-polyol, the pentane and a third blowing agent to be blended together. With this system, the energy saving is improved along with the insulation value of the appliance,” he said.

It took people a long time to bring the blending process to market because, the market is very competitive and it takes considerable trust between the customer, materials supplier and the machinery maker. It also took the introduction of HFC-245 and for systems houses to test formulations.

“We were pioneers in supplying equipment which could do this,” he said. It was a challenging task for us to design the new equipment for the appliance industry. Hisense was the first group to give us a big order to convert their plants, now more than 20 of their plants used three-in-one systems in China.

The three-in-one system led to the four-in-one system, said Hoong. “Because the competition among domestic refrigeration makers is strong in China, Midea came to look for us.”

“They approached us for a joint development for the four-in-one equipment. The system uses polyol, pentane, 245 and LBA Solstice,” said Hoong. He added that the concept is flexible: “You could have two-in-one, three-in-one or four-in-one. We have patented our Polyol Premix Unit System designs.”

Replacing HCFC

"Our orders are very good this year, we have had a 20% increase in our sales revenue." This is because RIM has been awarded a number of contracts for the phase out of HFC-141b for the sandwich panel & freezer industry.

“Under the UNDP programme, we are the first to convert a series of HFC phase out project in Malaysia. We have been awarded six projects by the UNDP and The World Bank has also awarded us several projects in Indonesia, and Vietnam for the phase out of 141b for the sandwich panel industry.”

Recently, RIM has also supplied equipment to companies in the Middle East for the replacement of 141b in rigid panels in continuous, discontinuous and block foam lines. RIM talks about turn-key solutions rather than lines or individual machines.

“Besides, we supply several new Hydraulic Discontinuous PU Panel presses to our client in Asean, who chose us due to the quality we provide,” said Hoong.

A big market – Automotive Application

Away from the insulation market RIM Polymers Industries other large market is in the automotive sector. The Chinese automotive sector, which is set to make 18 million cars in 2014 and over take Europe in the short-term, is a key market. “RIM supplies machinery for seats, head rests, head liners, steering wheel, carpet underlay. Recently we have supplied one customer in China with a four-component, flame-retardant parts for the engine bonnet cover in 2012,” said Hoong.

“This is a very niche market for us,” said Hoong. RIM Polymers Industries recently supplied a machine in China to make difficult niche parts for “fuel injection pump holder” for GM vehicle. The part must operate at high temperatures and have a high level of flame retardant. The part has to be made out of polyurethane because it offers good vibration absorption and sound insulation,” he said.

“In 2014, the firm has supplied a line into China to make a pentane-blown engine covers for Volvo,” Hoong said.

The part is designed to reduce engine noise and vibration. RIM has supplied all of the pentane handling and ventilation equipment to a Tier 1 supplier which sends them on for assembly. Injection is carried out by a 6 axis Robotic system. RIM has supplied complete solutions for head-rest lines including Foam-In-Place Technology.

“GM, Volkswagen and Mercedes are having sound insulation carpet as their OEMs use RIM equipment to make carpet underlay,” said Hoong. “We have supplied plants for sun roof encapsulation, sun visors.

Away from the automotive applications, RIM also supplies PU equipment for solar water heaters and cooler boxes. Malaysian cooler boxes are using pentane Technology because the production of cooler boxes in Malaysia is very high”, he said.

“China has been our main focus but we have also done business in India. RIM claims that its machinery is responsible for many of the steering wheels built in India after it supplied a few lines to Hyundai OEM in Chennai several years ago.  Hyundai OEM is our key customer”, Hoong continued.

Expanding out of Asia

“While, RIM’s business strategy has been to focus on an arc of countries from India to the Philippines, other “BRIC” countries are now in its sights”, said Hoong.

“In China we have 15 offices, we have six in India and we have a representative office in Russia. In the next three to five years we want to establish something in South America. We are looking at North America too. After coming back from UTECH North America, we had plans to expand our operation in Mexico, North America and South America, we are ready right now”, said Hoong

“We concentrated on Asia and now that we are well established, we are expanding into another continent”, said Hoong

The future move to North America is driven by the automotive industry, which already has a presence in the US, and RIM has supplied several machines. “We supplied machinery to make commercial refrigeration there too. So our machines are already there. Why not expand further to attack the growing market there?” He asks.

History

Rim Polymers Industries is part of CEH Group, a company that started as traders in the 1920s, and in the 1980s it formed a 100% owned company Cannon Urethane Technology (Asia) along with the Cannon Group in Italy. After the firms split, CEH group’s RIM polymer started making its own machinery in 2000 and claims to have sold over 1000 units.

“There are three divisions, Polymers; Industrial Automation and Industrial Manufacture”, said Hoong.

“In the 1980s, we had a partnership with Cannon Group in Italy and formed Cannon Asia, in Singapore. At the same time we also had a partnership with the Gusmer Machinery Asia and we represented them for all spray foam machines in the region. We were very comfortable and we had a good market share”, said Hoong. Today, RIM Polymers employs 90 staff.