IMTEX 2016 address the needs of machining industry

IMTEX 2016, the seven-day international metal forming machine expo that began in Bangalore on January 21 highlighted products that are more related to the auto industry. The 18th edition of IMTEX 2016 and the concurrent show Tooltech 2016, organised by Indian Machine Tool Manufacturer’s Association (IMTMA) at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, witnessed overwhelming response from the machining industry. By far the largest exhibition of metal forming machine tools and manufacturing solutions in South and South-East Asia, showcased the exhaustive range of innovations and technological refinements in the complete product segment of metal forming machine tools.

The industry veterans highlighted the requisites they are looking forward for Make in India to be truly operational. But the campaign to cater its outcome intended needs an active support from the Indian government. Highlighting on his expectations at IMTEX, Anbu, Director General, IMTMA said, “IMTEX Forming 2016 has exhibited technologies and innovations that act as a driving force for the machine tool industry. The latest metal forming technologies including servo presses, hydroforming, plasma cutting, high power fibre laser cutting, robotic welding are displayed at the show.”

The IMTEX Forming 2016 witnessed participants from 23 different countries which includes China, Germany, Taiwan and Japan. P G Jadeja, Chairman and Managing Director, Jyoti CNC Automation said, “This event comprised of key decision makers from major public sector undertakings, national association, national associations and large private companies who showed interest in buying machines. With this the purchase quotient and investment prospects are huge as global players witnessed the merits in the event.”

Underlining the need of skill tuning Vishvajit Sahay, Joint Secretary Department of Heavy Industry stressed that, “Skill enhancement becomes vital for us to par with the global standards. The eco system has to be nurtured, developed and should be fed with the required skills in order to stand parallel with the global standards. Center Of Excellence (COE) should be one of the key moves and machining industry addressed all the vital indispensability and lot of innovations in technology is exhibited in the event. But the figures of consumption against production is slightly alarming. The production figures out 645 million dollar wherein our current consumption figures around 1400 million dollar. This gap should be bridged to have applauses and this could be addressed with the help of intervention from the government end.”

The infra structure support should be a move from the government and should not be relied on foreign investors. The foreign investors does not have any responsibility to build infrastructure. This is a major lacuna and needs grievance committee for redressal. Economy grows well and demand booms well but still 45% of the machines are only manufactured and 55% are imported from Germany and Japan. Unless we lit the technology lamp, nothing could be imagined and the deals government signs with investors should not be opaque but transparent. Fingers crossed all the impediments would be taken care and futuristic India shines very near.