About Us

The Chennai-based BarCorr Coatings Private Limited offers high performance, chrome-free, thin film Magni coatings to automotive parts, component manufacturers and other corrosion-prone metal parts. The company was registered in October 2004 and has commenced production as of March 2006 as projected by Khushru Devitre, MD of BarCorr Coatings.  With the auto sector as its primary target customer, BarCorr has established an exclusive association with the Magni Group to offer supply and application services.

The Magni Group, a company head-quartered in Detroit, the automotive hub of the United States, is in the business of developing, manufacturing, and applying a wide range of protective coatings for both auto and non-automotive parts of various sizes and shapes.

The company’s system 500 series paints are specifically made for application by submersion followed by material spin-off by centrifuge on small auto parts, such as fasteners, press parts, stampings, springs, engine mounts among others.

This process, also employed by BarCorr, achieves precise and repeatable results with transfer efficiencies as high as 98 percent. It is designed for bulk application of parts, which are then oven cured. BarCorr in Chennai has a capacity to produce 200 tonnes of Magni coated parts per month, which includes a fully automated zinc-phosphate line for pre-treatment. While the primary function of these coatings is corrosion control, other design features such as lubricity, conductivity, “weldability”, deep-draw capability and resistance to heat will actually improve the performance of the parts they protect.

Worldwide, Magni offers its services to a host of automotive customers including General Motors, Ford, Daimler Chrysler and others. Though Magni has been present in the global automotive industry for three decades it is only now entering India, to offer its high quality coatings, to coincide with the boom in the export market for Indian auto and auto parts. With the perceptible increase in demand for better and cleaner corrosion resistant finishes for domestic cars, BarCorr anticipates a proportional increase in the use of Magni coatings which are a non-electroplated, cold applied coating product.

In the cold immersion, dip-spin process, the parts are placed in a mesh basket, submerged in coating solution, and then spun in a centrifuge to remove (and recover) excess coating material while achieving objectives for thickness and uniform coverage of the coated part. BarCorr is in the process of adding electro-static spray application capability for coating of larger sized press and cast parts and components.  This will be availably by early April 2006.

Compared with other chrome-free, thin film coatings, Magni products confer the added advantages of lower application cost per unit. The Magni process requires fewer coating layers. Also, the curing temperature is less by about 38° C (100 °F) as compared to that required by competitor products. According to Justin D’Costa, Technical Manager at BarCorr, these operational advantages add up to a significantly lower cost per unit over the competition.

Magni coatings also avoid hydrogen “embrittlement”, which is a type of deterioration linked to corrosion and corrosion-control processes. It involves the entry of hydrogen into a component, an event that can seriously reduce the ductility and load bearing capacity of the coated part, leading to cracking and catastrophic failure due to brittleness and reduced stress thresholds. When applied to sheet metal, the appropriate Magni coating can withstand forming/deep draw up to 310 mm. It can also withstand the effects of the welding process, as the coating does not bubble due to heat. During the application process, Magni paints can be stored and operated at room temperature, while similar paints available in the country today need to be stored and processed at a far lower temperature.

Initially, BarCorr will offer the most frequently used 500 series Magni formula and based on demand, it proposes to introduce other coatings, most of which involve a zinc-rich base coat and an aluminum rich top coat on pre-treated surfaces enabling salt spray resistance, in some cases, of up to 2000 hours. Of the various ways in which Magni paints can be applied, coil coating is of special interest to cold rolled sheet metal producers seeking to add value to their product by coating it with weather resistant and aesthetic colour pigments for the construction industry or with a corrosion resistant finish for the fabrication of fuel tanks and white goods.

BarCorr’s new facility in the south Ambattur industrial area in Chennai is a fully automated line while those planned in other cities will be semi-automated. BarCorr will be setting up similar facilities in automotive hubs, like Bangalore, Pune and Delhi, to meet the demand for a chrome-free, cold immersion, non-plated, corrosion resistant finish on metal parts used in the automotive industry.

Jenway, an associate company of BarCorr, is also located in south Ambattur industrial area since 2000 and has been engaged in a job-work, value addition service for pre-application of water based sealants and adhesives (Henkel-Loctite) on critical fasteners and other threaded parts where inadequate torque retention, locking or sealing are an issue. This is a technology pioneered by Loctite Corporation and has been widely implemented in the auto and non-auto industries with great success over the past 25 years.