Corrosion might not always be in the spotlight, but its impact on industries—from automotive to aerospace—is both significant and costly. For Saket Bhartia, Managing Director of Zavenir Daubert India, tackling corrosion has been a journey of innovation, perseverance, and a vision for sustainability. Starting the company right out of college, Bhartia introduced India to advanced corrosion prevention solutions at a time when awareness was minimal. Over the years, Zavenir Daubert has evolved into a leader in the specialty chemicals space, pioneering new technologies and sustainable practices. In this insightful conversation with Sanjay Jadhav, Editor of Machine Edge Global, Bhartia discusses the company’s journey, game-changing innovations, and how Industry 4.0 is shaping the future of corrosion management.
You started Zavenir Daubert right out of college in 1995. What inspired you to venture into corrosion prevention solutions at a time when awareness in India was low?
I was just out of college at that time and wanted to have my own business in the field of designing which remains my passion. We got introduced to Daubert Group from USA through a old business acquaintance and was immediately drawn to the solution driven approach which was revolutionary at the time for Indian market. Though the industry was relatively nascent then but there was still need of advanced corrosion prevention techniques for the industry. The VCI technology was new to India and Daubert being the inventors and pioneer in the technology became an ideal choice for having as an entrant to the market. It took some time to make the customers aware of the technology but after the initial period of introduction to the market, the customers accepted the technological advantage and superior economics of our solutions.
What was the turning point that led Daubert Group to grant Zavenir the license to manufacture its products in India?
We worked closely with Daubert Group for products and technology differentiation. Together, we were able to successfully establishment these high-performance corrosion protection products in Indian industrial arena due to approach of working on customer requirements and offering solutions accordingly. With the steady growth of business, seeing the even greater potential and recognition of Zavenir as the preferred solutions provider, Daubert Group had confidence on us as the partner which can effectively manufacture and supply their technological solutions to the customers across India. Zavenir became only the 2nd licensee in Daubert’s long history.
How has the Indian industry’s perception of corrosion management evolved since you first started?
The manufacturing industry was not very organized in the mid-90s and despite having corrosion issues, protection from rust was not one of the main agenda for the manufacturers. With discussions on process improvement and reduction in the total cost of ownership, the customers tested the products and were surprised with the great results. As Indian market became more competitive and export oriented, the need for robust solutions for export packaging and long-term corrosion protection increased, and the customers gradually opened up to the advanced solutions and understood overall benefits to them.
What are some of the most significant innovations in corrosion prevention that your company has introduced in India?
India has some of the most challenging conditions for corrosion prevention and management compared to any other industrialized nation, given the heat, humidity and the monsoons. This demands a stricter corrosion management regime and a wider variety of corrosion preventive technologies to work in conjunction with each other. Daubert offers the ideal set of proprietary technologies ranging from Volatile Corrosion Inhibitors (VCI), Contact Corrosion Inhibitors (CCI) and Severe Atmospheric Corrosion Inhibitors (SACI) and a confluence these products and technologies distinguish us in the marketplace by a mile as we are able to provide customers with top-of-the-line products to protect metals from a few days to up to 20 years. Current innovations revolve around the customer needs for compliances in the evolving area of chemical regulations, end-of-life or end-of-cycle disposal concerns and overall sustainability. To buttress our motto of not just ‘Make in India’ but ‘Innovate in India’, our new Technology Center in Gurugram, is designed to provide advanced analysis across the disciplines of corrosion prevention, surface modification and tribology and related product development to provide our customer innovative and sustainable solutions.
Zavenir Daubert’s Vision 2030 aims to establish it as a powerhouse in the specialty chemicals space. What are the key focus areas driving this vision?
We are already leading solutions provider in Corrosion Prevention domain but with our new technical collaboration with ZET-CHEMIE GmbH we look to establish ourselves in the Metalworking Fluids and Component Cleaning domains fulfilling our CCPP (Cut, Clean Protect and Pack) promise to give harmonized solutions in the metal working process chain. New technologies introduction are planned in the area of tribology (lubrication) and functional coatings to fulfil our promise of ‘Helping Metals Perform Better” and harnessing the power of our processes and people as we stride towards 2030.
Sustainability is a growing concern in manufacturing. How is Zavenir integrating sustainable practices into its products and operations?
Sustainability is one of the core values of Zavenir Daubert. From its core, our advanced manufacturing and technology Center have been meticulously designed to minimize environmental impact, embodying a vision of harmony between industry and nature. At the heart of our sustainability efforts at this facility is 100% solar power generation, ensuring clean, renewable energy drives every process. Complementing this, our zero effluent discharge policy and advanced water conservation systems underscore our commitment to preserving precious resources. Equally innovative is our Light Management System (LMS), which not only reduces energy consumption but also enhances safety. By utilizing low-voltage DC lighting, the system eliminates fire hazards while delivering efficient, direct illumination. This dual benefit not only supports operational safety but also advances our pursuit of LEED certification. Even our power backups are non-polluting, reflecting a holistic approach to environmental stewardship. Together, these initiatives propel us toward our ultimate goal: achieving manufacturing efficiency to a level where our planet is safe and secure future generations. We are actively working with our technology partners to introduce products in Indian market which are based on sustainable and environmentally friendly formulations and compliant with various global environmental regulations like REACH C EPA etc. One of the examples of such effort is our plans to introduce Biodegradable VCI film, which is landfill biodegradable, breaking down in 5–10 years into water, inert humus, and gases through a proprietary additive technology without compromising the performance.
Corrosion prevention is crucial for industries such as automotive, aerospace, and manufacturing. What are the biggest corrosion-related challenges industries face today?
Despite challenges the Indian climate presents, another big issue is the limited knowledge on corrosion management and its prevention at every stage of manufacturing and product life cycle. India today loses nearly 4% of its GDP due to corrosion, which is almost twice that those of other advanced countries such as US, Japan C Korea etc. We work with various industry organizations such as the CII and we are associated with their corrosion management division and contributing to the National mission on war against corrosion which is trying to formulate National Corrosion policy document with an objective to contain and reduce economic losses related to corrosion to India’s economy.
With advancements in Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing, do you see technology playing a bigger role in corrosion management?
Today’s era represents a time of remarkably high rate-of-change due to the combination of robotics driven by artificial intelligence to mimic both human intelligence and dexterous human activity. Any manufacturing facility needs to adopt these technologies at a rapid rate to be future-ready. As such our facility has been designed to be future ready with the use of sophisticated automation, material handling, packaging through autonomous mobile robots and cranes which work on AI to facilitate all activities of production, material handling with mere human haptics.
Similar technologies, when applied in metal working can improve process efficiencies to a much level including corrosion prevention and metal working fluid products. For e.g. the human fingerprint containing salts are very detrimental to corrosion of metals, using advanced robotics shall eliminate ‘fingerprint corrosion’. The use of metal working fluids is very common across all metal working industries, these fluids may tend to affect human skin health especially in dry conditions and use of smart machines will eliminate such an impact.
We, at Zavenir Daubert, believe that IoT based smart manufacturing will not just lead to greater efficiency and increase human productivity, but most importantly our Wellbeing!