Background of the interview

 

The headquarters of Pyroban Ltd are located in UK, France and Holland. Since her foundation in 1972, Pyroban has always been dedicating herself in the advanced techniques of safety and environmental solutions facing to the world market. Pyroban's engineering excellence and customer service have been recognized by many of the world's major industries including materials handling, oil and gas and emissions control. The explosion protection and environmental solutions provided by Pyroban follow the principle of ‘Protecting people, their investment and our environment’.

 

Founded in May, 2006, Pyroban (Suzhou) Safety Systems Co., Ltd. is the wholly owned subsidiary of Pyroban Ltd., to provide better service to customers in Asian area.

 

China Forklift: Good morning, Mr. Alan Winn! Thank you very much for your precious time for our interview. As we all know, Pyroban has a 30-years history in England. Last year, she built her factory in China. Could you please give us a picture of the forklift truck explosion protection market in your mind?

 

Mr. Alan Winn: I’m very glad to have this interview from China Forklift Net. Although we just built our factory in China last year, we’ve started the cooperation with China 20 years before. At that time, we were invited by the domestic customers in China to provide our service, which was mainly through import or the customers would send the forklift trucks which needed explosion protection to our factories out of China. Why do we start to produce in China? It’s because the domestic need in explosion protection in China Market is growing. 

 

In recent years, we’ve got large inquiries from the forklift truck manufacturers all around the world for our products to be used in China. Before we set up our China factory, these customers had to send their trucks abroad to our factory in UK and after we finished the explosion protection project, the trucks would be sent back to China. We realized that there was a big explosion protection market in China. We thought the best way to help China enhance the safety in explosion protection is to invest in China.

 

So we are here now. The reason that we chose Suzhou as our first location is because Suzhou is in the Changjiang Golden Triangle area; it has been quite active in recent years and developing very fast. We felt that these factors would ensure a promising future for our new company.

 

We’re glad to be able to have built our factory in Suzhou, which enable us to serve our current customers better and develop a larger explosion protection market in China. 

 

China Forklift: What new strategy will Pyroban take for next step?

 

Mr. Alan Winn: Pyroban is the leader in explosion protection area. Our strategy for the next step is to strengthen the functions of our Suzhou factory to meet our UK factory standards. Meanwhile, we will expand her business scope. Since the new technologies in Asian area are developed more and more, the most important mission of Suzhou factory is to develop. That’s the only way that we can provide explosion protection for the new forklift truck technologies. We will try our best to bring Pyroban’s products to customers to protect their safety and environment.

 

Following the development of forklift technologies, aiming at the specialty of the markets in China and other areas, we will also develop new products and projects to meet the special demands of our customers. Our Suzhou factory could see these new technologies earlier than European factories. We need the capability to develop the protection techniques for these new technologies and pass them to our European Group companies. Pyroban can always keep her leadership in the business and lead the explosion protection technologies by supporting and sharing information across the Group. 

 

China Forklift: In global area, after Pyroban came to China firstly, the other two explosion protection suppliers in Europe came to China too. Do you get lots of pressure from that?

 

Mr. Alan Winn: As a leader in the explosion protection business area, it’s inevitable that we get learners and copyists, who want to touch closely the market and try to get some market share. In fact, we’re quite used to this style. We also know that it’s possible for European and Chinese suppliers to walk along the way that Pyroban has passed to apply for new Chinese standard certification and develop their own technologies. No matter what our competitors do, Pyroban will never compromise in our promise: Quality, Service, and Creativity, which is the base to keep our leader position in the market.

 

Or we can say it in another way. Comparing with the competitors, our strength is that in UK, we’ve developed the explosion protection technology to a very high level and we’re still creating new technology on this basis.  Suzhou standards are exactly the same as our UK factory in order to ensure the high quality service throughout the world which makes us the market leader. This gives us the confidence that we can keep our commitment to our customers.

 

China Forklift: What’s your view about the technology competition and intellectual rights protection in the business?

 

Mr. Alan Winn: For some time, China has been making efforts in the protection of intellectual rights. As the business leader, we see our competitors trying to copy our technologies. The more protection from the government we get, the more difficult for the copyists to copy. We hope the government of China will keep on moving in it. Thus we will have more confidence in the protection and safety of intellectual rights. Obviously, the Chinese government has made great efforts and we have strong belief that such efforts will continue. We can see progress every year. 

 

China Forklift: In global area, Pyroban has been providing the lead technology in explosion protection solutions. What about Pyroban’s business in China? What about the application of the technology?

 

Mr. Alan Winn: Pyroban completes projects according to the actual needs of the end user. When the customers buy forklift trucks, they are able to choose the best truck to meet their needs.  This selection could be the truck performance, price, comfort, or after-sales service according to their needs. After the customer makes his choice, we will work on the forklift truck to provide appropriate protection.

 

We provided explosion protection conversions for many international fork lift truck manufacturers.  With their growing market in China and the interest shown by some local famous brands we felt that it was the right time to create the wholly-owned subsidiary of Pyroban Ltd. in Suzhou. We’re very glad to take this chance to cooperate with corporations in China, and work together to provide explosion protection of industrial vehicles.

 

We’ve already started the cooperation with 2 companies (Heli and Dalian- Mitsubishi) and long as there’s the need for explosion protection, we will be very glad to provide our service to other Chinese manufacturers.

 

There’s one thing very important. Although we cooperate with all companies, we always work to maintain confidentiality with each partner. That’s why we have a very close cooperation with all our cooperative partners. To achieve this, we always try to achieve the highest standards of integrity within Pyroban.

 

China Forklift: Has Pyroban any other business besides providing safety system solutions for engineering machinery? Could you please introduce for us?

 

Mr. Alan Winn: Just like what we’ve written in our mission statement, the principle of Pyroban is “Protecting people, their investment and our environment”. The business of Pyroban Group through its divisions covers 4 areas. We convert vehicles in industrial area, such as forklift trucks, platforms, cranes, electric blocks, hoists, etc. We convert oil exploration equipment for explosion protection. We provide consultant service to give advice on explosion protection for many industries including mining. Last but not least, we have environmental safety department, mainly focusing on diesel engines of vehicles, to improve the quality of the exhaust emissions to help protect our environment. The system can be installed on existing diesel trucks, buses, and other vehicles to improve the exhausting system.

 

It is my job to bring all four divisions to the Pyroban Suzhou Factory.  In 2008 we will be focusing on our oil & gas activities. 

 

China Forklift: Comparing with the special area of industrial vehicles and Chemical industry, the Chinese corporations got aware of explosion protection quite late. Most of them are not familiar with the explosion protection technology. Mr. Winn, could you please explain for us the application of explosion protection technology?

 

Mr. Alan Winn: In explosion protection, there’s an approval authority called CQST (China Quality Supervision and Test Centre for Explosion Protected Electrical Products), which is very experienced in explosion protection. It’s a pity that many factories in China have no idea of the application of explosion protection. What we’re doing now is to generalize the knowledge of explosion protection together with CQST to let these factories know what explosion protection is.

 

When the factories use normal handling equipments to work in an environment with existence of flammable liquid, gas or dust, they have high risks. For these factories, the first step is to recognize that they have a risk. It’s true that sometimes when you use normal handling equipments in dangerous area, the equipments don’t explode, but it’s a problem of probability. Many explosion accidents happened because factories had used non-protected equipment before without incident either because they did not realize there was a risk or decided that as it had not happened yet it would not happen at all. When an explosion accident takes place, it can cause people to be injured or killed, then there is the loss of property or even destroying the whole factory and it may also have a serious impact on the environment. We hope that readers will after reading this article assess their risks of explosions within their work environment. 

 

China Forklift: Concerning how to select the right and suitable explosion protection products for corporations, Mr. Winn, do you have any good suggestion? Could you please introduce it to us?

 

Mr. Alan Winn: We hope that the end user will select professional companies to provide explosion protection solutions for them.

 

Recently when we had an exhibition in Shanghai International Exhibition Centre, there happened a small incident where some people took photos of our explosion protection equipments and products secretly and we think that they did this to try to copy our techniques. If they produce copy products just according to some photos, do you think they can guarantee that it will work?  It is what they could not see that is important.

 

Then, as a normal user that has no knowledge of explosion protection system, how can he select a good product from the bad ones?

 

I’d like to teach you a simple method.

 

At present, the latest explosion protection standard in China is GB19854-2005 which is different from other standards in the world. For industrial vehicles with explosion protection in China the first question you should ask is:

 

Is your product able to pass the inspection of explosion protection authority and get the certificate conforming GB19854-2005? It’s possible that some products in China can meet the standard of GB3836-2000 which is used only for parts of the forklift truck. That is to say, the parts can have an explosion protection certificate, but the certificate is only for the parts. The only one certificate which applies to the whole truck is GB19854-2005 certificate. So the final user should confirm if the supplier can show a GB19854-2005 certificate.

 

Secondly, since the explosion protection standard is new, many suppliers for explosion protection systems haven’t been able to get a certificate for the whole truck and so you need to learn how to recognize the real certificate shown by the suppliers.  Concerning this part, you can ask for help from the authority of China, such as CQST for consultant.

 

There are some small tips that can help you to prove if the supplier is professional. Before we design the explosion protection system for the industrial vehicles of our customer, we will first obtain information about the environment the vehicle will be used in.  We will need to know the zone (1 or 2), what their gas explosion group and temperature class are, etc. That is to say, a good supplier will surely ask such questions. If the supplier accepts an order without asking questions or only with rough information, you shall consider if the supplier has the qualification to make explosion protection system.

 

All in all, to look for a good explosion protection supplier, the best way is to ask and consult as much as you can. CQST and CNEX can help provide some information to enable you to make the right decisions.

 

A good explosion protection solution can protect the vehicles working safely from explosion danger; protect your employees, your investment and the environment. But people won’t notice the existence of the vehicles, because even if there’s problem, it won’t be an explosion accident. A good explosion protection solution means comfortable vehicle, normal operation without any potential explosion risks.

 

China Forklift: Thank you for your time in the middle of your busy business, Mr. Winn. We hope that Pyroban will get better and better achievements in the future!