IMTEX is the flagship event of the Indian machine tool industry, showcasing the latest trends as well as technological refinements from Indian and other global players.

It is billed as South and South East Asia’s apex exhibition. The mega event attracts visitors from a wide spectrum of manufacturing and ancillary industries including key decision and policy makers as well as industry captains who are keen to source latest technologies and manufacturing solutions for their product lines.

Organised by the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association (IMTMA), the apex body of the Indian machine tools and accessories industry, the 18th edition of IMTEX 2017 and 19th edition of the concurrent show, Tooltech 2017, will be held from 26th January 2017 to 1st February 2017 at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) in Bengaluru. IMTMA has built a new hall of around 17,500 sq.m, which will be an add-on to the existing infrastructure. This should also ease some of the pressure organisers feel in accepting requests for larger display areas. The industry will get an opportunity to showcase its innovations in 6 halls covering a gross area of 66,000 sq.m. Manufacturers, suppliers, visitors, researchers and delegations from as many as 22 countries will be participating.

The IMTEX series of events alternates between metal cutting and metal forming technologies, with the odd years for metal cutting machines and technologies; and the even years for metal forming. IMTEX 2017 – the odd year – is dedicated to the metal cutting machines.

Tooltech is a premier event concurrent to IMTEX 2017 showcasing machine tool accessories, metrology and CAD/CAM cutting tools, tooling systems and current trends in the tooling industry. Tooltech manifests recent innovations in technology, design and product development to achieve competitiveness and excellence in the machine tool industry.

IMTEX 2017 will witness a strong competition from major Indian and global machine tool players vying for attention. It highlights recent innovations in technology, design and product development with the aim to bring cost competitiveness in all metal working operations. Tooltech 2017 – the 19th in the series – will yet again bring an explicit range of cutting tools from the stable of the world’s leading brands.

Trade delegations from sectors such as auto components, automobiles, aerospace, defence, railways, power, capital goods, consumer goods, space technologies, etc., will be visiting the exhibition. The exhibition will feature over 1000 exhibitors. The group participation this time around is from 7 countries: China, Germany, Spain, Italy, USA, Taiwan and Czech Republic.

Several foreign delegations are also slated to visit the 7-day extravaganza. IMTMA along with EEPC India is holding a Reverse Buyer Seller Meet at IMTEX 2017 with an aim of providing a platform for the Indian Machine Tool manufacturers to interact with international buyers. Since the event attracts major Indian machine tool manufacturers, besides the bringing companies from 22 countries, it is an ideal platform for the international buyers to look out for the most advanced technologies to meet their requirements.

Sharing his views in a signed communiqué on the current scenario, on the eve of IMTEX 2017, Mr Parakramsinh G Jadeja, President of IMTMA said, “Now will be a busy time as for the industry as ‘manufacturing’ becomes the buzzword and infrastructure and capital goods occupy central place. It is my firm belief that manufacturing will get its due share in India’s GDP and the Indian machine tool industry will play a catalytic role in the times to come in order to make this possible. I would like to reiterate that IMTEX 2017 and the concurrent ToolTech 2017 will further strengthen the manufacturing industry of the country.” Jadeja is the Chairman & Managing Director of Jyoti CNC Automation Limited, one of the significant players in the Indian machine tool industry.

The Indian machine tool industry has around 1000 units in the production of machine tools, accessories/attachments, subsystems and parts. Of these, around 25 in the large scale sector account for 70 per cent of the turnover and the rest are in the SME sector of the industry. Approximately, 75 per cent of the Indian machine tool producers are ISO certified. While the large organised players cater to India’s heavy and medium industries, the small-scale sector meets the demand of ancillary and other units.

For this Special Section on this grand exhibition, Industrial Products Finder invited the views of some of the leadings players in the Indian market, and the following pages feature not only their views, but also a preview of what each of these companies is bringing to the exhibition. That could well prompt some of the readers to actually visit the show!

International Seminar on Machining Technologies

The metal working industry is bracing for new challenges and new technologies in view of increasing competition vis-a-vis performance, quality, efficiency and environmental sustainability. There are difficult parts, intricate parts and difficult materials to be managed through metal working equipment and expertise from new technology horizons, viz., additive and subtractive manufacturing, increasing use of robots, micro machining and super finishing, Industry 4.0 and so on.

With a view to highlight the evolving trends in the machining technologies, the IMTMA is organising an International Seminar on Machining Technologies on 25 January 2017, in conjunction with IMTEX 2017 at the same venue.

Seventh in the series, this international seminar is today recognised as an international platform in India for global interactions on the latest trends in metal cutting. This seminar will dwell extensively on new manufacturing strategies, review and address emerging trends, as well as expose users and manufacturers to a range of value added machining solutions.

International experts from Germany, USA, Japan, UK, Switzerland as well as from India will facilitate sessions at this international seminar. Spread over 2 keynotes and 5 concurrent sessions, this seminar will cover key technology areas and their application related to metal cutting.

i2 Pavilion

The i2 Pavilion (Industry-Institution Pavilion) is another interesting initiative of the organisers. IMTMA has been at the forefront of bonding Industry-Academia linkage and is continuously taking several initiatives and offering a platform for Indian academic institutions to participate in IMTEX every year. At IMTEX 2017 too, IMTMA has provided an opportunity for Indian academic/R&D institutions to showcase their R&D capabilities in metal working field. This participation will be through display of four posters and product demonstration from each institution.