Sika is a market leader in the adhesives & sealants technology for the bus manufacturing industry and is present in all major applications of bonding, sealing, damping, reinforcing and protecting. In India, the company is making rapid progress across different segments, primarily driven by its focus on quality and delivering value to customers.
We spoke to Mr. Pankaj Sharma, National Business Development Head – Transportation and Marine, Sika India, about the company’s participation in the 16th NIQR Global Quality Convention in Chennai.
Excerpts:
What is Sika’s aim in participating in this year’s NIQR Global Quality Convention?
NIQR’s primary focus is quality. This comes in sync with what our (Sika’s) focuses are. In the commercial vehicle business in India. We offer solutions for customers across different segments such as buses, trucks, special vehicles and rail. We are a global company and have about 200 manufacturing locations in 100 countries.
We have a wide range of products and we wanted to use this convention as a platform to demonstrate our strength in the latest technologies. When I say latest technologies, it means the latest upcoming commercial vehicles, mainly EVs and their upcoming application-related challenges in which we can provide solutions. For example, fire in e-vehicles is a major concern as Li-ion batteries when heated due to peak load conditions or short circuit can catch fire. Hence e-vehicles need to have fire protection coating which will increase the evacuation time for passengers adding to the safety of the vehicles.
How is Sika growing in terms of its business this year?
In the transportation market field, we have recorded a big boom in sales compared to last year. The only thing we are expecting now is more growth. We have also started exploring our business in the truck and rail segments wherein we are pitching our latest products and innovations.
We are also exploring the possibility of setting up a manufacturing unit in India for Silane Terminated Polymer (STP) range of products. STP products extend the portfolio performance, especially in the applications where less surface pre-treatment and isocyanate free products are requested and so, in that perspective, we wanted to showcase our presence at this event.
Sika is also known for its quality, and we have always demonstrated our strength when it comes to quality and latest innovation. Every year we globally file close to 80 patents on an average, and last year we filed more than 200 plus patents globally.