• 12/10/2025
  • Report
  • Technology & Processes

Interlinked mass finishing system from Rösler: Proven plant concepts for the growth market of Southeast Asia

Rösler’s interlinked finishing system enables efficient, highly automated processing and consistent quality at Harting’s Vietnam plant.
Several rectangular connector housings on a bright surface.

The Harting Technology Group, headquartered in Espelkamp, Germany, is one of the world's largest manufacturers of industrial connectors. Among other things, the company develops products for the solar and wind energy, electromobility, hydrogen production and robotics sectors, thereby contributing to a sustainable energy future. More than 30 years of cooperation with Rösler was the reason for the decision to rely on a proven system concept from the surface specialist for the new Harting plant in Hai Duong, Vietnam.

In mid-2023, Harting opened a production facility in the Southeast Asian country, where both small plastic connectors and heavy-duty plug connectors made from aluminum are manufactured. In order to process the so-called heavy plug connectors efficiently and with the usual high quality in the new plant, Harting invested in a new mass finishing system from Rösler. This technology is already being used successfully at other locations, including in Germany and China.


Aluminium connectors for a wide range of industries

The Vietnam plant is intended to meet the high demand in the growing Southeast Asian market and ensure direct local delivery to customers. The heavy plug connectors processed in the Rösler system are mainly supplied to the markets in Japan and South-Korea, specifically to the robotics industry, enabling Rösler to participate in this rapidly growing future market with its technologies.


At its Vietnam manufacturing location Harting has specialized in the production of aluminum plug connectors. The plug housings are initially shaped in a die-casting process and then undergo a machining operation, which also includes the milling of threads and drilling of holes. Since the coolants and greasing compounds used for machining contaminate the component surface, the components must undergo a subsequent cleaning process.


This takes place in the interlinked Rösler system. The same process includes a surface smoothing and deburring operation as preparation for powder coating, which protects the housings against corrosion and general wear. The dimensions of the treated plug connectors range from 60 x 40 x 30 millimeters up to 220 x 140 x 60 millimeters. Depending on the housing size, individual batches of up to 1,500 components can be processed.
 

The interlinked Rösler system consists of 6 different equipment segments: A roller conveyor transports the work piece bins with raw work pieces to a skip loader. This picks up the work piece bins – one at a time – and unloads the contents onto an angled belt conveyor. At that time the operator selects a suitable processing program. Subsequently, the belt conveyor transfers the components into a rotary vibrator, where they are deburred and degreased in a single operation.

Upon completion of the finishing cycle the components are automatically unloaded from the rotary vibrator onto a vibratory screening machine to separate the finished work pieces from the grinding media. From there they pass through a vibratory spray washing station fed by a water-compound mixture and are then transferred to a hot air belt drier. With a conveyor belt the finished and dried work pieces are finally backloaded into the customer work piece bins. With a few exceptions, such as the selection of the processing program, the entire process runs fully automatically without any additional support from the operating personnel.

​3D rendering of an automated mass finishing line with feeder, rotary vibrator, washing unit, dryer and discharge conveyor.​
The Rösler interlinked system consists of six units.

New impetus in occupational safety and ecology

In order to keep noise emissions to a minimum for workers, the entire system was enclosed in a soundproof cabin measuring almost 13 metres long and 3.7 metres wide. An intelligent process water cleaning system rounds off the unit: a semi-automatic basket centrifuge for separating solids from the process water is also integrated into the plant chain. The treated process fluid is post-treated in a vacuum evaporator. In terms of occupational safety and ecology, Rösler and Harting are thus jointly providing new impetus in Southeast Asia.
Since the machining process was transferred from the five identical Rösler interlinked systems that Harting already has in operation, no reassessment was necessary. Only minor adjustments were made. ‘We developed and optimized this process jointly with HARTING so that it can be easily integrated into the HARTING manufacturing environment and produces optimal finishing results that meet the strictest quality standards of our customer,’ says Matthias Ender, Technical Sales Manager at Rösler.

 

Partnership with future prospects

The interlinked finishing system currently processes around 300,000 to 400,000 aluminium plug connectors per year. ‘We are very happy with the Rösler equipment. We are impressed by the entire material handling concept, the high degree of automation offered by Rösler and the robust design of the Rösler equipment. We are equally impressed by the numerous technical features regarding work-place safety and the finishing quality of the work pieces, which surpasses anything offered in South-East Asia,‘ explains Philipp Borcherding, Plant Manager at Harting Vietnam. ‘The entire system proves again the reliability and functionality of the Rösler equipment.’
With this system, Harting is also relying on European expertise and its partnership with Rösler in the Southeast Asian market.