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Breaking new ground

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Breaking new ground

With over 400 exhibitors and participation from 25 countries, IMTEX Forming and Tooltech 2014 proved to be resounding success | By Indira Rao |

The Indian Machine Tool Manufacturer’s Association (IMTMA) celebrated its 45th year of IMTEX and inaugurated IMTEX Forming 2014 and Tooltech 2014, with an extravagant ceremony in the midst of several celebrated industry professionals on 23, January 2014. The sixday forming exhibition held at Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) was inaugurated in the presence of Vikram Kirloskar, president, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Jamshyd N Godrej, chairman, exhibitions, IMTMA and L Krishnan, president, IMTMA. Talking about the show, Godrej stated that the trade fair showcases contemporary technologies and new product developments of the entire forming sector within the metalworking industry. It is a manifestation of cost-effective alternatives to Jetstream Tooling conventional metalworking solutions. The biggest challenge for the Indian manufacturing industry is to keep up with ‘technology changes’ itself in several sectors. We in machine tool as an enabling industry need to continuously innovate upgrade and invest on technology — which in turn leads to specific solutions for several sectors.”

The machine tool industry plays an important and impartial role, catering to the need of both, small and large automakers alike. “Forming the backbone of many major sectors of industrial activity in India, in the traditional manufacturing context, the domestic machine tool industry has played and will continue to play a key role in enhancing competitiveness and enabling development of quality and excellence in the output of the manufacturing industry and of the Indian economy as a whole,” averred Kirloskar. However, the Indian manufacturing sector is taking some hits of late. Despite this, the sector is set to pick up pace soon. L Krishnan, said, “We are in the middle of the 12th Five year plan, a comprehensive and visionary roadmap for the entire nation. The manufacturing industry continues its hard work with the vision of achieving 25% shares in overall GDP by the year 2025 from the current 15.2%. It also envisages a manufacturing growth of two to four % over that of the GDP growth. The third key aspiration for the manufacturing sector is to generate a hundred million jobs by the year 2025.”

Though there would be job creations, the one hurdle the industry faces today is of retaining talent. A platform like IMTEX also helps young talent witness high-end technology and that may generate their interest and they might look at manufacturing as a lucrative possibility. The trade fair displayed a comprehensive range of machines catering to varied sectors like aerospace, automobiles, auto component, defence, capital goods, electrical & electronics, earth moving & construction, food processing and dairy equipment, railways, infrastructure, oil & gas equipment, pharma equipment, space and nuclear, telecom among others. Over 400 exhibitors participated in the show, the likes of which included ISGEC, LVDStrippit, Hindustan Hydraulics, Salvagnini Italia, Yamazaki Mazak, Electropneumatics & Hydraulics, etc.

Forming technology is pivotal to the development of the manufacturing industry worldwide. Globally forming machines constitute a major part of the machine tools. India needs to catch up with this. Realising this, manufacturers put their best forward and used the trade fair to showcase their latest offerings. For example, Sahajanand Laser Technology Ltd showcased four different innovative machines at the show viz. Akshar Fiber Pro 3D, Akshar Fiber Pro, Akshar AxiFiber, Infinity Fibre. “Machines of this kind have been launched for the first time in India. In fact, the Infinity Fibre is probably the first of its kind in the world. It has been designed entirely keeping the customer in mind,” averred Maulik Patel, executive director, Sahajanand Laser Technology Ltd. Trumpf also displayed their TruLaser 1030 fiber for the first time in India. Expressing his views on the show, Indrajit Rana, head- marketing, Trumpf India Pvt Ltd said, “This IMTEX is very special for us. We have been participating here since 2006 and the show has grown and advanced tremendously. Exhibitors have started understanding their customers better and are making machines keeping them in mind. Overall with respect to IMTEX 2014, the number of people visiting has probably been half of last year but the quality of people has doubled compared to last year.”

Apart from witnessing high end Indian technology, visitors also got to see various international machines. There were 24 countries other than India participating at the show. Key countries were Australia, Germany, France, Switzerland, Turkey, Sweden, Japan, Thailand, UK, USA etc. The exhibition also saw group participation from four countries — China, Czech Republic, Germany and Taiwan. There were also high level domestic delegations from ISRO, Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL), DRDO, SIAM, Naval Dockyard to name a few. Another highlight of the show was the ‘Academia Pavilion’, which was set up with an aim to provide an opportunity for Indian academic / R&D institutions to show case their R&D capabilities in the field of metal working. Twenty four institutions participated here.
There is no doubt that R&D forms the backbone of any manufacturing industry and more so the machine tools, which has come a long way over the last few decades and today, offers priceless tooling equipment to the manufacturing sector. IMTMA acknowledged such men who have helped manufacturing attain new heights in their career span. Ranjit Puri, chairman, Isgec Heavy Engineering Ltd was awarded the 5th IMTMA- Premier Outstanding Entrepreneur Award and Abhijit Mukherjee, managing director, BIES was conferred with the IMTMA President’s Award. While expressing his gratitude to IMTMA, Puri avowed that competition is the driving force for attaining success and moving ahead in the right direction. A similar sentiment was echoed by his colleague Vivek Nigam, sr. vice president – business development – presses, Isgec Heavy Engineering Ltd. “We are emerging out of a recession with the philosophy of beating competition. In order to compete with the international MNCs, the Indian industry has to learn to meet the demands in time.” Talking of ‘brand India’, he said, “In order to sell our products abroad, we have to first sell India and then our products. However, there definitely is a consensus overseas that Indians are talented, cooperative and geared to meet the customer’s vision. Indians have to learn to get more professional, punctual and talk to the point specially when dealing with international clients. This in the long run would definitely help ‘brand India’ stand out.”

As stated afore, a lot of foreign companies participated in the fair. Even though the country experienced a slowdown last year, the start of the year saw new investments and developments. For example LVD during the course of the exhibition held an Open House at its brand new demonstration and training centre in Peenya, Bangalore. “The growth we have seen from the Indian market has been quite significant. We want to show our commitment to the Indian customers by not only showcasing new technology at IMTEX but also our investment in the new tech center,” stated Matthew Fowles, group marketing manager, LVD Company. This tech center was open for visitors from 23 January to 2nd February, 2014. “We had arranged for an executive shuttle service to run between the trade fair grounds and the tech center every hour from 10:00am to 16:00pm,” added he.

After witnessing several companies launching their products at this year’s IMTEX, one can conveniently say that Indian manufacturers are not backing off. Breaking new grounds at IMTEX, the exhibitors have raised the bar. This was clearly evident from the kind of footfalls at the show. Such a response definitely instils and reiterates the optimism of a high growth phase that is set to return soon.