IMTEX 2011, the 15th Indian Metal-cutting Machine Tool Exhibition, was a hugely successful event that took place at BIEC, Tumkur Road, on the outskirts of Bangalore city. The once triennial and briefly biennial event has now become an annual feature, with one major difference. Every year the show alternates between cutting and forming technologies, with Tooltech, the concurrent event catering to the Cutting Tools, Tooling Systems, Machine Tool Accessories, Metrology & CAD/CAM, a constant each year.

The mood was very upbeat as 1000-odd delegates gathered at the conference centre of the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) on the morning of January 20, 2011. In his opening address, Mr Jamshyd N Godrej, Chairman Exhibitions of IMTMA and Chairman & Managing Director, Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited, described machine tools, along with design and innovation, as the heart of any manufacturing process. But he also stressed the need for hard and soft infrastructure to be in place with skill development as the other pre-requisite.

Dr R Radhakrishnan, Chairman - ISRO and guest of honour spoke about the aerospace industry. He said, "Bangalore is fast emerging as a global aerospace engineering hub. For this growth to continue, advanced technology and manufacturing is essential to make the country internationally competitive and customer oriented. Aviation is a major tool for economic development and IMTEX, with its focus on high-end technology, will benefit the aerospace sector in India."

IMTEX 2011 featured over 800 exhibitors and 750 machines with a total value of Rs 1400 crore in their premises. Exhibitors came from the top 23 countries in the segment of machining tools (the largest overseas group participation was from Germany). IMTEX is clearly getting bigger and better with every passing year.

Energy Saving and Eco-friendly were the buzzwords across all the three halls, were technology was in motion, literally, during the 7-day mega machine tools show. From Ace Designers of India to Zayer SA of Spain, the A-Z of the machine tool universe were present with their latest machines, the humble mechanical power presses also vying for attention in the company of sophisticated 5-axis milling machines targeting the aerospace industry. And it was not the machine tools of various sizes alone, but all the associated accessories - cutting tools, metrology products, lubricants, conveyors, safety equipment and of course the CAD/CAM design and other software services - a one-stop-shop literally, that could cater to the most discerning of customers who thronged the venue in thousands, on all seven days. Even the 'bandh' call that was given for one day in the middle of the event failed to dampen the spirits.

Most leading players had something new to show. Bharat Fritz Werner Ltd (BFW) launches several new machines, including Agni Plus and the Delta HMC. Engineering and automobile company, Premier Ltd (formerly Premier Automobiles Ltd), showcased three new CNC machines, along with a host of new technologies, developed in-house, at IMTEX 2011. TAL Manufacturing Solutions, formerly a division of Telco (now Tata Motors) launched new generation technology machines, marking a major milestone in the progression of TAL's world class cost-effective technology offerings.

The company, like Premier, basically got into manufacturing machine tools for its own consumption, during the early phase of self-reliance in automotive manufacturing in post independent India, but is now catering to the industry in general. The automotive industry is a major consumer of machine tools globally. Vadodara-based Cosmos Impex (India), both a manufacturer as well as dealer for imported machine tools, had a large display in Hall 3. The company won the most prestigious Machine Tool Design Innovation Award in it's 1st year of manufacturing Grinding Machines at IMTEX 2011 The Cosmos Creep Feed Grinding Machine with micro granite bed represents the most revolutionary invention in the grinding sector with performance levels many times higher than possible with conventional grinding, as a result of larger wheel contact arc and an appropriate machine concept. "We have a full team of surface grinding manufacturing and design who have more than 20 years of experience in panel of Board of Directors in Cosmos Grinding Technologies and they have designed new machines with their rich experience in design and manufacturing," says Mr V Nagesh, director, Cosmos Impex (India).

DMG/Mori Seiki India, for whom this is the first IMTEX since establishing the new business collaboration between DMG from Germany and Mori Seiki from Japan, had a joint booth featuring 15 new machine models on display, with five India premieres. Also on display was the scaled model of its XXL machining centre, series DMU 600 P. With this 5-axis universal milling centre, DMG enters into the market of large component production, in the sectors like automotive tool making, energy, machine tool industry and aerospace. The top brass of the group was present at IMTEX 2011, Dr Thorsten Schmidt (Gildemeister), Mr Andreas Hartig (Deckel Maho), Mr Takeshi Saito (Mori Seiki), and Mr Sridhar Ramisetti, MD, DMG Mori Seiki India. With big plans for expansion in the Indian market, the company is launching a new technology centre with a large showroom at Peenya in Bangalore, scheduled to open in May 2011.

Starrag Heckert Machine Tools Pvt Ltd, India, a whole-time subsidiary of StarragHeckert AG, launched a new range of WMW horizontal machining centres. WMW is a very productive solution for machining parts of trucks, tractors, earthmovers, windmills, compressors, power generation engines, valves, turbine blade root and general engineering, etc. The company will be soon opening its green field Machine Building factory in Bangalore and also expand the Technology Centre already opened in Oct 2010. The Swiss headquartered StarragHeckert Group is an innovative global turnkey solutions provider with 150 years of heritage with various production plants across the world across several brands: Starrag, Heckert, SIP and TTL, besides WMW. With such a rich fare on the IMTEX menu, expect the automobile industry to leverage the new generation technology for achieving better manufacturing efficiencies in days to come.