Scan Machineries Private Limited has been working to provide the best equipment and technology for paper production to the pulp and paper industry for over three decades. In a recent conversation with Paper Mart,
Mr. Vinod Nargunam, Executive Director of Scan Machineries Private Limited, & Mr. Christy Selvan, Works Director of Scan Machineries Private Limited, shared the product and service offerings that form the company’s portfolio today while reflecting on comparatively humble beginnings. They also indulged in the global footprint exerted by Scan Machineries, the scale of projects the company undertakes, and insight into the processes undertaken by the company to execute its clients’ projects.
Paper Mart: Please tell us about your journey, major milestones, and crucial achievements.
Vinod Nargunam: Scan Machineries was founded in 1989, and it has since been serving the pulp and paper industry with a complete range of product offerings. We started by supplying small paper machine parts, such as a pope reeler, and slowly moved to manufacture our first complete paper machine for Dongargaon Paper Mills. Since then we have moved on to design, manufacture, and supply the first hydraulic jet headbox, completely made in India, to Emami Paper Mills. We supplied a 400 TPD paper machine, which has a complete closed draw of paper sheets right from wire to the 1st dryer group, to Suvarna Durga Paper Mill. It is the first by an Indian manufacturer.
Christy Selvan: As of today, our product portfolio has grown well and contains product offerings like turnkey paper mill projects, complete paper machine production lines and paper machines for different types of paper, hydraulic jet headboxes with dilution profile control, pressurized rectifier roll jet headboxes, and high-speed winders and rewinders with upto 2000 mpm speed, with complete paper threading, reel transferring, and splicing systems, and automated slitter positioning systems with data-driven technology. Our products are not limited just to the Indian market but are constantly exported around the globe.
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PM: Kindly give us a walkthrough of the paper technology provided by Scan Machineries, emphasizing their features, applications, and advantages.
VN: We serve the pulp and paper industry with complete product offerings such as turnkey paper mill projects, complete paper machine lines, paper machines for all kinds of paper, paper machine parts and sections, such as hydraulic jet headboxes with dilution control, pressurized rectifier roll jet headbox, high-speed winders, and rewinders upto 2000 mpm, double and triple zone suction pickup rolls, hard nip and soft nip calenders with European technology, multi-layer fourdrinier wire sections, dryer and coating sections, automated reel transfer section with multi-spool parking system and automated paper sheet tail shooting systems keeping employee’s safety in mind. We work closely with European companies to offer premium quality and services of all our products for the market.
PM: Are your machines manufactured and assembled in-house? Kindly elaborate on your plant set-up.
CS: Yes, all of our machines are manufactured, assembled in-house, pre-tested, and match-marked before being dispatched from our production facility. Our facility consists of 6 bays which include right from our large automated German CNC cutting machine of the mild and stainless steel plates which then proceeds to our fabrication bay for welding. Our multiple production machines then cut excess metal and finish the surface of our products at the highest standards. We have now also purchased a new CNC double-column machining center as part of our investment budget for 2023 for faster delivery times at the highest quality standards. It would be one of the biggest manufacturing machines in the paper industry. It is later shot blasted, painted, and pre-assembled in our assembly bay and tested before eventual dispatch from our production facility.
PM: Do you follow a made-to-order business model? What are your manufacturing capabilities and how many machines do you sell in a year?
VN: Scan Machineries business relies on a made-to-order business model since for each customer their requirements, production capacity, design, and level of sophistication involved in the paper machines and their parts differ variably.
CS: We can design, manufacture, and supply paper machinery right from 50 TPD to 500 TPD for our customers. We also do turnkey paper mill projects for the same capacities all around the world. We sell 1-2 complete paper machines, around 10 headboxes, and 10 high-speed winders and rewinders, up to 2000 mpm. We also take multiple rebuilds and specific product orders.
PM: Scan Machineries also undertakes turnkey paper mill projects across the globe. Kindly elaborate on this with regard to some of the locations worked in and products and services set up.
CS: Emphasizing our turnkey paper mill project product offerings – it was mainly designed to help and provide our valuable customers with the intention of ease and support just from a single source – Scan Machineries. We supply everything the customer requires in order to set up and run the entire paper mill. The customer just needs to buy the land and do the civil construction while we take care of the rest. This is very helpful for customers especially those coming from a different industry and planning to set up a paper mill.
VN: We design the entire Paper Mill layout, manufacture and supply all of the pulp and paper machinery, and design the stock preparation layout, paper machine layout, civil drawings, effluent system layouts, steam and condensate, electrical, piping, and instrumentation drawings. Lastly, we send our manpower for both the erection and commissioning of all of our supplied machinery. Some of the locations we have worked in are Kenya and Zambia.
PM: Can you tell us in detail about your market footprint and major clientele?
VN: Our footprint is fairly widespread across the globe. A few of the countries we have supplied our products to are, of course – India, Kenya, Zambia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, etc. Our major clientele includes Kuantum Papers Limited, Seshasayee Paper and Boards Limited, Emami Paper Mills Limited, Suvarna Durga Paper Mills, Dongargaon Paper Mills Limited, Lohia Paper Board Private Limited, Balaji Malts Private Limited, Bajaj Kagaj, DK Tissue and Papers Limited, Pragati Paper Industries Limited, Ecotech Papers, Arab Paper Manufacturing Company Waraq (Saudi Arabia), Mega Paper and Board Limited (Kenya), Silverstar Manufactures Limited (Kenya), and Book Hut (Zambia).
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PM: What, according to you, are the USPs of your company that set it apart from other competitors in the market?
CS: Our main USPs are our standards of design and the quality of machines manufactured by us. Most of our customers are through word of mouth and that gives us immense joy and pleasure. We also have a strong passion for paper and we revolve all our processes and product portfolio around a sustainable future in mind.
PM: What is your technological and business roadmap?
VN: Technologically, increasing production capacities and the level of automation we offer is our ultimate goal and we are investing huge sums in our production facility in order to cater to those requirements. We are also designing and manufacturing high-value products such as the hydraulic jet headbox with dilution control, pressurized rectifier roll jet headbox, and hard and soft nip calenders with swimming rolls inside India which now further helps our valuable customers to not go abroad to other countries for such products.
CS: We also keep partnering and working closely with European companies to bring their standards and knowledge transfer in order to supply high-quality machines.
PM: Do you undertake R&D at your company? How do you maintain the quality of your offerings?
CS: Yes we do undertake R&D in our company. We constantly keep developing our products to the highest standards available in the market and we take every opportunity we can capitalize on that. We maintain our quality in mainly two ways, one is partnering and working closely with European companies and another is having stringent systems in place in order to constantly provide paper machinery at the highest quality.
PM: What are your visions and plans for the future?
VN: Our vision is to have a larger slice of the global paper machinery market. In order to make that happen, we constantly keep ourselves updated on the latest technology and innovations and infiltrate markets that have immense potential. Like our company’s motto, ‘Passion for Paper’, we keep gaining knowledge and will keep our plans revolving around high-value paper products and sustainability in mind.
