IMTEX FORMING 2016 SAW A VARIED DISPLAY OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND INVENTIONS
By Jayashree Mendes
NOT EVERYONE IS PRIVY TO WHAT HAPPENS in the machine tool industry. But every manufacturer knows the workings of machine tools and how important it is to their plant. It is for this reason that IMTEX FORMING 2016, South East Asia’s largest
metal forming machine exhibition, that was held from January 21-26, 2016 at BIEC, Bengaluru, attracted more than 40,000 visitors and 70 trade delegations from 23 countries.
Organised by the India Machine Tools Manufacture Association (IMTMA), the fair also saw another concurrent event, Tooltech 2016, at the same venue. This focussed on dies and moulds, forming tools, machine tool accessories, metrology and CAD/CAM,
while IMTEX FORMING 2016 showcased machine equipment, processes, tools, accessories, software and raw materials as well as feed stocks required for manufacturing formed parts in every engineering applications.
Inaugurating the exhibition, Jamshyd N Godrej, MD & chairman, Godrej & Boyce, welcomed the gathering along with Parakramsinh Jadeja, president, IMTMA, and elaborated on how IMTEX is now a much awaited exhibition for the manufacturing industry.
“The machine tool industry is growing in line with the best of this sector. About 20% of the machine tool in India is for the metal forming tools. Hence, investment in this directly impacts the economy,” he said. The organisers also have plans to expand the trade fair thus allowing it to accommodate more companies to participate in future IMTEX shows.
The Chief Guest RV Deshpande, Minister for Large and Medium Industries & Tourism Government of Karnataka, elaborated on how Karnataka has been at the forefront of infrastructure development and also has several firsts to its credit. “I am proud that
we are the only state to have invited IT companies and hundreds have followed later. Karnataka is also the only state to have the least infrastructure issues in the country. Our cluster-driven approach has stood us in good stead and in this the state would also play an important role in the growth of the machine tool industry. We assure IMTMA our full support at the
policy and execution level.”
An issue he highlighted was the availability of skilled workforce in the state. At a time when skilled labour seems to be a thorn in the side for the manufacturing and machine tool industry, Deshpande seemed proud that Karnataka little faced that problem and would work towards further enhancing skill in the state.