A new standard for surface finishing in Vietnam: Interlinked mass finishing system meets the highest safety and quality demands

For more than 30 years Rösler Oberflächentechnik has been a valuable partner of HARTING by supplying modern, reliable finishing equipment and providing first-class service. This long-term cooperation with the surface finishing specialist was, no doubt, an important reason, why the new HARTING plant in Hai Duong, Vietnam, chose to implement a proven Rösler equipment concept.

In mid-2023 HARTING opened a new manufacturing facility in this South-East Asian country for producing small plastic as well as heavy-duty plug connectors made from aluminum. This production is guided by the slogan „In the region for the region“ and is directed at the Asia-Pacific market. To ensure that the new manufacturing facility produces the so-called heavy plug connectors efficiently and in the proven high quality, HARTING invested in a new mass finishing system from Rösler. The same finishing technology is already successfully utilized at other locations, such as Germany and China.

Philipp Borcherding, plant manager at HARTING Vietnam, comments: „Our excellent business relationship and the high quality of their equipment made it easy for us to implement this investment with Rösler.“

Different aluminum plug connectors for a broad range of industries
Plug connectors are indispensable components for the efficient function of electronic systems in practically all industries including automotive, telecommunication and the “green” energy sector. The plant in Vietnam is intended to satisfy the demand in the growth market South-East Asia and ensure the reliable supply of HARTING products to the customers in this area. The heavy plug connectors, treated in the interlinked Rösler finishing system, are predominantly sold in Japan and South-Korea, here especially for robotic applications. This allows Rösler to be part of a fast-growing future-oriented market.

At its Vietnam manufacturing location HARTING has specialized in the production of aluminum plug connectors. The plug housings are initially shaped in a die-casting process and then undergo a machining operation, which also includes the milling of threads and drilling of holes. Since the coolants and greasing compounds used for machining contaminate the component surface, the components must undergo a subsequent cleaning process. This takes place in the interlinked Rösler system. The same process includes a surface smoothing and deburring operation as preparation for powder coating, which protects the housings against corrosion and general wear. The dimensions of the treated plug connectors range from 60 x 40 x 30 millimeters up to 220 x 140 x 60 millimeters. Depending on the housing size, individual batches of up to 1,500 components can be processed.

Proven multi-stage finishing process guarantees excellent results
The interlinked Rösler system consists of 6 different equipment segments: A roller conveyor transports the work piece bins with raw work pieces to a skip loader. This picks up the work piece bins – one at a time – and unloads the contents onto an angled belt conveyor. At that time the operator, depending on the size and shape of the components, selects a suitable processing program. Subsequently, the belt conveyor transfers the components into a rotary vibrator, where they are deburred and degreased in a single operation. Upon completion of the finishing cycle the components are automatically unloaded from the rotary vibrator onto a vibratory screening machine to separate the finished work pieces from the grinding media. From there they pass through a vibratory spray washing station fed by a water-compound mixture and are then transferred to a hot air belt drier. With a conveyor belt the finished and dried work pieces are finally backloaded into the customer work piece bins. With a few exceptions, such as the selection of the processing program, the entire process runs fully automatically without any additional support from the operating personnel.

To minimize the noise emissions for the personnel working around the Rösler equipment, the entire system was placed in a noise absorbing cabin with a length of 13 m and a width of 3.7 m. The interlinked finishing system also includes an intelligent process water cleaning and recycling unit: This consists of a semi-automatic basket centrifuge, model Z 800, which separates solid contaminants from the process water. In a further step the cleaned process water is then passing through a vacuum evaporator. Usually, competitors in this part of the world pay little attention to work-place safety and ecological aspects. The same is generally true for production facilities in the South-East Asian area. With their emphasis on safety and ecology Rösler and HARTING are true trend-setters for the entire region.

Since the finishing process implemented for the facility in Vietnam is already used in five identical Rösler interlinked finishing systems at HARTING, no additional process evaluation was required. A few minor modifications were made, and the work piece transfer points from one equipment component to the next were optimized. Matthias Ender, technical sales manager at Rösler explains: „We developed and optimized this process jointly with HARTING so that it can be easily integrated into the HARTING manufacturing environment and produces optimal finishing results that meet the strictest quality standards of our customer.”

Strong partnership offers an excellent outlook for the future
The interlinked finishing system started operation at the end of 2024. At the moment it handles 300,000 to 400,000 aluminum plug connectors annually. Philipp Borcherding from HARTING comments: „We are very happy with the Rösler equipment. We are impressed by the entire material handling concept, the high degree of automation offered by Rösler and the robust design of the Rösler equipment. We are equally impressed by the numerous technical features regarding work-place safety and the finishing quality of the work pieces, which surpasses anything offered in South-East Asia. The entire system proves again the reliability and functionality of the Rösler equipment.“

With the finishing system in Vietnam HARTING relies on European know-how and the proven partnership with Rösler for its success in the South-East Asian market. „For decades we had only good experience with Rösler, and we know that we can equally rely on the equipment as well as on the Rösler service all over the world. In view of the rapid growth of the South-East Asian market, we are extremely interested in the consistent and rapid expansion of our facility in Vietnam. We will of course involve Rösler as a strategic partner in this development”, concludes Philipp Borcherding.