A company owned by a Greek Australian family has been chosen by Toyota to supply original-equipment bull bars as dealer-fit accessories for the new HiLux and the Fortuner SUV.
That normally wouldn’t be big news, but Abcor, the supplier, is a model for other parts suppliers to follow, as full-scale manufacturing winds down in Australia. A family-owned company, Abcor anticipates exporting its locally-manufactured bull bars around the world, but its core business will remain here.
Toyota and Abcor have worked together very closely in the development of the bull bars, with the local engineers liaising with Toyota accessory and vehicle engineers in Japan.
Abcor builds the bull bars in two basic types – Prestige and Commercial – and in seven different variants. The bars are fashioned from XF400-grade steel and comply with all Australian Design Rules, which means they’ll deform correctly in the event of an animal striking them. The bars are designed to deflect kangaroos weighing up to 80kg.
Not bad, considering the bar itself weighs roughly 60kg all up, which is around 10-15kg heavier than the aluminium bull bar the company also supplies Toyota for the Prado. But that weight penalty is ultimately offset by its strength. Abcor estimates that the steel bull bar still weighs at least 20kg less than the competitors’, and it’s winch-compatible of course.
Being an original-equipment fitting (not aftermarket), the bull bars are covered by the same warranty that applies to the vehicle. They’re easily fitted at the Toyota dealership, one company spokesman told the motoring.com.au website. It’s just “like Ikea,” he said.
Abcor has spent half a million dollars buying an Italian Intec auto linishing cell, which automatically sands down the rough edges (the welding scale) to a very smooth surface that is ready for powder coating and won’t tear a gash in an unfortunate pedestrian. Without the linishing (which is rarely done manually with the same degree of consistency) the bull bars’ weld ‘sinks’ would be visible through the powder coating.
In addition to the two manufacturing facilities, Abcor has a test facility at Altona, where vehicles like the Prado and HiLux are run over an offset corrugation track, where engineers can assess whether the bull bar will make contact with the vehicle’s body during the test. As one engineer explained to motoring.com.au, modern off-roaders frequently feature a secondary suspension system between the chassis and the body, so the bull bar, being mounted to the chassis, does move independently of the body during a test like this.
Abcor plans to export its bull bars for Toyota vehicles to South Africa, New Zealand and possibly parts of Asia and the Middle East. The company’s new production facility in Campbellfield can produce 10,000 to 12,000 units per annum, from one shift. It’s unlikely to happen, we’re told, but in the event Abcor ever gets to export to a truly large market like North America the company would need to recruit more staff for three shifts.
Currently the facility is staffed by 16 production workers, with the HiLux Premium bar already in production. Six more members of staff will start once the commercial bars go into production from next month.
Present for the official opening today were John Kaias and his brother James – both Abcor directors and sons of the founder Greg Kaias – and Toyota Australia president Dave Buttner, who was on hand to remove the shroud from a HiLux front clip fitted with one of the new bull bars.
“We have invested $15 million in this purpose-built facility to manufacture the new generation of Toyota HiLux steel bull bar,” said John Kaias during his presentation this morning.
“Our long-term partnership with Toyota in supplying original-equipment manufactured products and our belief in local manufacturing made our decision to invest quite simple.”
In some ways, the Abcor experience is a hint of how Australian manufacturing could and should evolve in the future. The company is long established and is clearly trusted enough by Toyota to be allowed access to the new-generation HiLux well before the car was officially seen in public. It’s not a cottage industry-style concern, but nor is it an especially high-volume manufacturer.
Oddly enough, Abcor is flying in the face of conventional business practice in this country. It’s buying imported steel from Bluescope and creating a value-added product. In Australia our manufacturing history has been the reverse of that – exporting a raw product to be fashioned into a finished product overseas.
The new facility received the highest praise from Dave Buttner, the Toyota chief describing the new plant as a “state of the art facility”. It’s a premises where “you could eat your dinner off the floor,” as one company spokesman observed.
Bull bars may seem like unsophisticated products that anyone can make in a backyard facility, but consider the engineering that goes into making a bull bar deform progressively – and in consonance with airbag deployment. Then take a peek at all the leading edge manufacturing equipment: the robots, the auto linishing cell, Cold Metal Transfer (CMT) welding, the powder coating kilns, the pneumatic lifting gantries – and particularly the laser cutting equipment – and you’ll look at a bull bar on the front end of a HiLux with renewed respect, and for an entirely different reason.
Source: motoring.com.au