KOMPAS.com – Polygon is a local Indonesian bicycle brand located in Sidoarjo Regency, East Java.
One of the factories is located at Veteran Road, Jalan Lingkar Timur, Wadung, Sidoarjo and produces thousands of Polygon bikes every day.
The process of building a bike starts from scratch, starting with raw materials and ending with the bike being made available to the general public.
Produced bicycles are also very diverse. There are mountain bikes, road bikes, and electric bikes that are also made in the factory.
Some time ago Kompas.com had the honor to visit Polygon’s second plant in Situarzo.
The production process for Polygon bikes at Sidoarjo is a bit different from what other bike factories do.
Founded in 1989, this local bike manufacturer prioritizes the quality of the bikes they produce and does the entire process in one factory.
“Every quality can be guaranteed for all types of bikes because we control everything from zero to the bike.”
This is what Steven Vijaya, director of Polygon Indonesia, recently told Kompas.com in Sidoarjo, East Java.
In one large area, there are several stages of building bikes from scratch, including cutting tubes and welding them to the frame.
Raw materials such as alloy chromium steel pipes are placed on site and then ready for the cutting process.
Some of these materials are imported directly from abroad, while in order to obtain a strong and durable bicycle frame, it is necessary to use injection molding technology.
The pipes then go through a cutting-to-size process, depending on the type of bike to be built.
These pieces are pressed one by one or turned into squares and circles by machines, depending on the desired shape.
After the pipe is cut and shaped, the next process is incremental or frame numbering.
This case number is designed to provide the best quality possible, including when customers want a warranty.
In the same area, a pair of workers weld pipes to the front frame while others weld the rear triangle.
The two formed frames are then welded together again in a joining or fusion process to become an early bicycle frame.
During this process, strict quality control is carried out to ensure the accuracy of each welding process.
In addition to manual completion of the splicing triangle frame process, it can also be done by robotic welding machine in large quantities.
“It was one of our investments to speed up production due to high demand,” said Yosafat of the Polygon team, who was a tour guide at Polygon’s Sidoarjo plant at the time.
When the front and rear triangular frames are ready, the bicycle frame is heated in a large oven called the T4 oven.
This process is the initial stage of heating, called preheating, at 545 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes.
As the particles become softer and smaller, the alignment or quality control process is performed again to ensure all sections are accurate.
After the centering process is completed, the frame is again heated in a T6 oven at 230 degrees for 4 hours, which is called post-heat treatment. The goal is to make the frame particles get bigger and stronger again.
The volume of the T6 oven is also large, and it can inject about 300-400 frames at a time.
Once the frame is out of the T6 oven and the temperature has stabilized, the next step is to flush the bike frame with a special liquid called phosphate.
The purpose of this process is to remove any residual dirt or oil that is still attached to the frame as the bike frame will then go through the painting process.
Rising to the second or third floor of different buildings, cleaned from the building where they were originally made, the frames are sent for painting and pasting.
The primer at an early stage should provide the base color and at the same time cover the surface of the frame material to make the color more colorful.
Two methods were also used in the painting process: manual painting with the help of employees and using an electromagnetic spray gun.
The painted bike frames are then heated in an oven and then sent to a special room where they are sanded and repainted with a secondary color.
“After the first layer of paint is baked, a clear layer is baked, and then the second paint turns blue again. Then the orange paint is baked again, so the color becomes transparent,” Yosafat said.
Polygon logo decals and other decals are then applied to the bike frame as needed.
Each frame number that has existed since the start of bicycle frame production is registered with a barcode.
As with motorcycle or automobile manufacturing, the purpose of providing a barcode on this VIN is to ensure that the type of motorcycle is legal.
In this place, the process of assembling a bicycle from various parts is designed with human strength.
Unfortunately, for privacy reasons, Kompas.com does not allow photography in this area.
But if you describe the assembly process, then everything is done manually by workers using conveyors and a few more tools.
The bicycle assembly process begins with the installation of tires, handlebars, forks, chains, seats, brakes, bike gear and other components taken from separate component warehouses.
After a bicycle is made into a bicycle, it is tested for quality and accuracy in use.
Especially for e-bikes, a quality control process is carried out in certain areas to ensure that all electrical functions work properly.
The bike was assembled and tested for quality and performance, then disassembled and packaged in a fairly simple cardboard box.
This lab is the earliest pre-material process before a bike concept is scheduled for mass production.
The Polygon team will design and plan the type of bike they want to run or build.
When using special robotic tools, it starts with quality, accuracy, resistance, durability, vibration testing, salt spray and several other test steps.
After everything is considered OK, the production process of new bikes will go through this lab for mass production.
Your details will be used to verify your account if you need help or if you notice unusual activity on your account.