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FOUNDER OF TIPCO

PIONEER OF INDIAN PLASTICS INDUSTRY

Shri. BAPULAL M. THAKKAR
1920 – 2007

In the early 1940’s, Plastics was still a novelty material, a strange substance, full of surprises and evoking suspicions. By then, the invention of Leo Bakeland (Phenolics) had made some inroads in India via certain applications, mainly visible as those traditional telephones (always in black colour), in electrical switches and of course there were black soap boxes too. This was the age of Bakelite, (the trade name of Phenol formaldehyde resins & moulding powders) a well-established brand name and material in UK, USA and Europe. Let us not forget that, at that time, college professors were teaching their students that Ethylene cannot be polymerized. Casein and Cellulose plastics were already old workhorses. Polystyrene, PVC & Nylon were just starting to make inroads. Birth of Polyolefins was still in the distant future.

Under British rule, the Imperial Chemical Industry (ICI), the British chemical giant who had a monopoly in those days, was importing Bakelite material into India. For the Indian processors this was truly a learning process against several odds. Moulders from Kolkata (majority), Mumbai (growing) and Delhi (beginning) were predominantly using basic hand operated moulding presses, with no proper control system, thus evolving their own unique & haphazard production techniques. For example, spitting on a hot mould to observe how fast it would evaporate was a classical method to guess the temperature; or if the flow of the Phenolic compounds were too stiff, then you would put two guys instead of one, to literally hang onto the handle of the hand-press to close the mould.

This was the scene in the early 40’s. I was amazed to watch these acrobatics even a quarter century later when I joined Tipco in 1964 and saw even more surprising indigenous (or as I call it India-Genius) methods employed by our resourceful moulders, which truly baffled me and it was then that I realized that my USA degree in Plastics had, infact, become more of a show-piece.

This was a true period of evolution; Albeit a real slow evolution.

Bapulal Mansukhlal Thakkar was an active, front-row, participant of this evolution during this initial period. After he completed his Chemical Engineering from UDCT in 1943, he was 23 years old when he started work on his doctoral thesis at the Royal Institute of Science (RIS), Mumbai (as it was then known). He did not have an iota of hint about what lay in store for him when he started sharing his laboratory with another student, a Parsi called Homi Sethna. This was in the midst of World War II. The availability and imports of raw materials was extremely difficult. Two British companies, Ferodo (manufacturers of brake lining material) and Grindwell (grinding wheels) were desperate to get a steady supply of their basic raw material, i.e. Phenolic Resins. Both companies had common Indian partners. One of them was Mr. Sidhwa, who after a long search approached the R.I.S. for assistance. R.I.S. requested Mr. Sethna to help out his fellow Parsi. However, Homi Sethna had other ideas. Obviously, destiny had already made an advanced booking for him as the future Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. So the young Homi suggested that perhaps his fellow lab friend “Vanio” might be interested in this proposal.

Many of you would remember that in the movie “THE GRADUATE”, the lead actor Dustin Hoffman was having a celebration at his home after obtaining his college degree. Someone asked this young graduate what he planned for the future. Hoffman’s character could not respond to this, so the enquirer enthusiastically exclaimed – “PLASTICS – plastics is the future my young fellow”. We are not sure whether Dustin Hoffman’s character grabbed at this idea, but we did subsequently learn in the movie that he had other pursuits in mind. Whereas, our “Vanio” (as Homi affectionately called him), Bapulal Thakkar, who had a brilliant academic record, unlike the other “Graduate”, decided that it was time to jump into something different and readily accepted the challenge of developing Phenolic Resins for these Parsi gentlemen, who also happened to be the owners of Bharat Tiles and Marbles with their factory located at Reay Road, in south Mumbai.

It was a new beginning; With no previous experience, no guidance, no equipment and no ready technology, BMT (as he is called by all) accepted this challenge at the age of 24, to compete against global forces, including ICI.

This small step was the birth of a company called TIPCO. BMT was given minority shareholding and designated as a Manager, with not a single person under him to manage. The partners were, obviously, sceptical about this fragile looking, handsome young fellow, and hence they gave him everything except money. However, BMT’s determination, his pioneering spirit and his everlasting self-faith, more than made up for the lack of finance, which ultimately did start trickling in after the initial successes.

Imagine for a minute that you are making Phenolic Resins without a proper steam/oil jacketed reaction kettle, without a proper heat source, without adequate condensers or distillation columns or receivers, without a cooling tower, no control valves, no temperature measurement devices, no vacuum facility, etc, etc. BMT’s negative list perhaps was even longer. It was a chemical engineers’ nightmare. Maybe!

However, BMT was no strait-jacketed chemical engineer. The entrepreneur within him was bursting to come out to take full control of the situation. Not only did he begin attempts to develop various types of Phenolic Resins without any of the above facilities, but he also succeeded in making appreciable amount of usable resins. Acid catalysed Phenol Formaldehyde Resins are highly exothermic reaction and if improperly made, can sometimes explode like a powerful bomb. (many major disaster in several parts of the world were reported).

Well, BMT did learn this lesson, albeit the hard way, at 2.00a.m. on a summer morning, when the Reay Road police knocked on his door, took him to his make-shift “manufacturing” premises and then proceeded to interrogate him about his “Bomb Making Activity”. It so happened that one of the simple G.I. drums, in which he was experimenting with the manufacture of Phenolic resins, had exploded a few hours back. Semi-finished resin slurry pieces were splattered all over the place causing a terrible pungent smell of formaldehyde and spreading panic in the tear-ridden eyes of the neighbourhood. Residents had gathered in large numbers armed with lathis, stones and even perhaps other weapons. This was during the highly intense period of World War II, and right after the famous Mumbai docks bomb blast, where several exploded items from the bombed ship were disposed off in faraway places, one of which was Reay Road. So, the residents presumed, that perhaps the Germans had landed in Reay Road and that the Police had now apprehended their Agent.

The Police were suspicious, the neighbours were agitated and the partners of TIPCO apprehensive. Eventually, after several hours of explanation, BMT convinced the Police that he was just a harmless chemist and not in the business of making bombs and he definitely was not a German agent.

However, convincing the partners was infinitely more difficult. Finally, after several days of convincing by BMT, they reluctantly agreed to allow him to continue his mumbo-jumbo experiments, on one condition that, he move the operations out to a far away island called Uran. Luckily for BMT, there were hardly any residents at Uran. It so happened that Grindwell also had some operations at Uran and at a safe corner, far away from their own works, on a small parcel of land, a rickety tin shed was set-up by BMT to pursue his bizarre work. The partners eventually sold the company to BMT, who despite such setbacks had developed enormous faith in himself, the product, the company and the future of the industry.

It was an one-man show! BMT and his few workers had to personally carry all the Phenol, the Formaldehyde, the acid & other ingredients all the way to Uran. They would start by heating the Phenol in a GI drum, under burning wood, then slowly add the right proportion of formaldehyde manually and then finally add the acid. Thereafter, one end of a flexible pipe was put in the drum and the other end was immersed in a container filled with water. This contraption was meant to absorb the gas that evolved during the exothermic reaction. And yes, most importantly, he had to ensure that there would be no explosion or any harm to himself or his fellow workmen. However, he could do nothing about the unbearable pungent smell of formaldehyde which would bring tears to his eyes.

Adequate training was given to his workers. He simply instructed them that “once we put the other end of the pipe in water, we should run for our lives” and come back the next morning when the polymerization was “supposedly” completed, then decant the water and heat the syrup in a coal tar boiler. There were no thermometers or any precision temperature-measuring devices available to him. He would simply discharge the resin after the water had evaporated. The crucial question was whether this resin was ready for use. These judgments, in the early years, were only by perfected by trial and error. Initial success came only through hard labour, perseverance and experience. Sophisticated manufacturing methods came later.

In the mid 1960’s, when I personally worked with several resin operators on TIPCO’s shop floor, I noticed that these veterans (who trained under BMT) would simply pick up a small sample of sticky, burning hot Phenolic Resin, straight from the reactor, then they would play around with it in their hands, crush it and then inform me the melting point, simply by the feel, touch and tackiness of the resin. It was amazing judgment to witness! To impress them with my newly acquired college education, I would struggle to measure the melting point of the same resin by capillary method, oil heating baths and controlled measurement systems, and then pronounce the melting point many hours after the workers had already completed the batch. To my surprise, the operators were always dead-right. I believe that this skill and accuracy acquired by the workers was entirely due to the thorough, hands-on, training given to them personally by BMT. I find it heartwarming, that even today, I sometimes see this practice on the shop floor.

Getting back to the island of Uran. The next morning, if the resin had indeed solidified, the entire block was broken-up by hand, filled into drums and then brought back to Reay Road for further operations, i.e. making of Phenolic Moulding Powders.

BMT often wondered that if his friend had taken on this assignment instead of him, how would Dr. Sethna have responded to all these limitations! BMT did remember that initially when Mr. Sidhwa had first approached Homi with this proposal, the meticulous scientist had carefully studied his Perry’s Handbook, (the Chemical Engineers’ bible) and only thereafter did he decline this proposal.

Coming back to our subsequent “state of art” unit operations at Reay Road which involved unique size reduction, separation, mixing, compounding & granulation equipment. This was all—in-all a typical "Mr. Perry’s nightmare scenario. In one corner of the shed, several ladies would be found grinding the wood flour by hand operated traditional devices and hand held sieves, which are normally used for grinding & sieving in villages. Thereafter, workers would hand mix the “made in Uran” Resin with the sieved woodflour plus all the other ingredients in a manually operated tumble mixer.

Now do we have a phenolic moulding powder that can be moulded? No, not yet!

This mixture was then taken by “hath-gadi” to T. Maneklal & Co., Kurla, for compounding on a two-roll mill (at the time Tipco could not afford to install this basic prerequisite compounding machine). After the rolling operation, the compounded sheets were cooled, then broken up into tiny pieces by hand, once again put it in the same drum and brought back to Reay Road for further grinding (which also happened to be a manual operation). Finally the ground powder was filled into gunny bags. The powder was ready to be used by a guinea pig called the “Customer”

Now do we have a Moulding Powder that can compete with ICI’s “Bakelite”?

You bet! Due to shortages and increase in demand, Indian moulders welcomed this local version of “Bakelite”, which was appropriately called “Tipcolite”.

Several “clever” moulders would even insist on buying the unrolled, un-compounded material from BMT, since they had no patience to wait for T. Maneklal to give a time slot to Tipco for two-roll compounding. These innovative customers would use this semi-finished thermosetting powder and some even claimed that they could produce saleable soap-boxes directly out of this half-cooked compound. I am now sure, that if any highly trained & experienced technologist from ICI would have witnessed this, they would have suffered a nervous breakdown. This would have defied all their technical training and logic.

This was indeed the beginning of the slow – very slow – evolution of the Indian Plastic Industry and BMT certainly enjoyed playing his pioneering role with great enthusiasm and dedication.

From such a struggling beginning of the 1940’s, as the first and pioneering manufacturers of plastic raw material in India, BMT subsequently went on to establish India’s largest manufacturing unit of Phenolic Resins, Moulding Compounds & Thermoplastics at Malad (Mumbai), on a well-developed 7 acres infrastructure, using state-of-the-art Reaction vessels from Germany, two-roll compounding plants from Denmark, fully automatic wood flour plants from Sweden, a 8000 sq.ft. quality assurance laboratory, a well-equipped R&D centre and India’s first continuous compounding plant from Switzerland.

In subsequent years, the seeds sown by BMT led Tipco to introduce India’s first state-of-the-art Twin Screw compounding plants, modern high-speed Mega-Compounders, India’s first artificial Wood Plastics, Engineering Thermoplastics, Composites, Elastomers, Additive Concentrates and eco-friendly Polymer-Natural Fibre products.

He also established a well equipped, Government recognized, Research and Development Laboratory, which employs several PhD’s in the field of Thermosets and Thermoplastics Engineered Compounds. The eventful and inspiring journey of BMT from Reay Road to Uran to Malad and then to Multi-Location Manufacturing Plants all over India was indeed full of excitement, struggle, progress and satisfaction.

The original Partners had long back (in the late 40’s) left Tipco and handed over the reins to BMT as they had doubts about the future of both – BMT and Plastics in India. They were wrong!

However, even in these trying times, BMT had the inclination, the time and the intense devotion for service to the burgeoning Indian Plastics Industry. In 1948, at the young age of 28, BMT was named the member Secretary of the first Plastics delegation sent by the newly formed All India Plastics Manufacturers Association (AIPMA) to Europe and USA. In these initial years, BMT worked very closely with several industry leaders such as Shri. B.D. Garware, Shri. Kilachand, Shri. Ruia, Shri. Podar, Shri. Khemani and many other Industry captains. He was indeed a member of this League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This was also the early and formative years for the AIPMA, and BMT went on to become its President in 1957.

In 1973 BMT received recognition for this pioneering role in the field of Plastics raw material, at the hands of the then President of India, Shri V.V. Giri. In August of 1994 BMT was named as a UDCT DIAMOND (one of their 19 outstanding students), who were honoured by the department on its 75th year celebrations (the Diamond Jubilee). In 2003, the Indian Plastics Institute elected BMT as its Honorary Fellow of the IPI for yeoman service to Indian Plastics Industry. In 2005, AIPMA felicitated him as one of the oldest surviving presidents as they embarked on the 21st century.

In recent years, when Plastics has entered into a high-growth phase in India and its usage is rapidly multiplying on all the fronts and when plastics consumption by volume has overtaken steel, glass and paper, BMT was no longer active in the business. He spent these last years in spiritual pursuits at Agra as President of Radhasoami Satsang.

One of the more remarkable character traits of BMT is that he was very liberal with all his family members – his brothers, his sons, nephews and his grandsons. He gave them all the freedom to study anything they wanted as long as it was Plastics Engineering. Thus he raised a large family of “Plastics Mercenaries”.

BMT passed on the torch to his third generation – who are also well qualified in Plastics Engineering from the USA – all at a time when TIPCO has been experiencing constant changes and transformation through modernization expansion, new locations, technology & strategic tie-ups with world leaders such as Philips, Ferro, Constab, Hoechst, Mitsui, etc. Despite all these changes, one thing has always remained constant in TIPCO and that is the Value System of BMT. His innovative spirit, his technology driven culture, his “can do approach”, his respect for the rules, ethics and spirit of business, all of these have been the real and solid inheritance of the 3rd generation. This they have received and inherited with gratitude from BMT. This spirit and culture is now being exhibited by the Young Turks, in various forms such as developing new frontier technologies and products.

The younger generation, along with entire workforce of TIPCO (past, present and future), as one joint family, are fully committed to take BMT’s dream to even greater height, by imbibing the spirit and value system of their founding father, Shri Bapulal Thakkar.

Nirmal B. Thakkar