Mr Bhavin Parmar, Partner, Pinnacle Engineering Enterprise, responds to the IPF Questionnaire talking about the company and its products, backed by a 50-year-old legacy. Excerpts:

What are the products that you offer?

We offer horizontal spindle reciprocating table type surface grinding machines in full range from 500 x 250 mm to 2500 x 750 mm with two axes automatic; three axes automatic with programmable down feed; five axes automatic with programmable down feed with auto dressing along with dressing compensation; and CNC in multiple axes and spline grinding machine as per customer requirement.

What are the applications?

Our machines have applications in several industry segments. These are used to prepare plastic and sheet metal dies and moulds, parts for automobile industries, textile industries and machine tools, jigs and fixtures for tool room, medical instruments industries, aeronautics, defence industries, turbine industries, material testing laboratory, etc.

Why should the customer opt for these?

Pinnacle offers machines with the design, concept and features normally found in German machines with same quality and inspection standards. We follow German DIN standard for inspection of the machine in addition to Indian standards.

How strong/effective is the after sales service?

We have been able to develop very good market for our products because of effective after sales services. With the development of communication systems - mobile, internet, etc., most of the service calls are replied directly from our works, and with proper guidance, the complaints are easily solvable to the entire satisfaction of our esteemed customers. We have also been able to develop very good data base for high precision grinding techniques and with the help of the same, we are able to solve most of the shopfloor problems on trunk line guidance only. We have very strong after sales service network in major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Calcutta, Chennai and Hyderabad, etc. Besides, we provide service anywhere in India within the shortest possible time.

How does the cost of ownership over the life cycle compare with competition?

We are in this line for more than 5 decades and our customers always prefer to go with the Pinnacle (Parmar) brand. After initially using Parmar lathe machines for several years satisfactorily and thereafter using Pinnacle surface grinding machine for almost three decades now, very satisfactorily, old customers suggest to new customers to go for the Pinnacle brand of proven machines for their precision and quality. So customer loyalty is important, which is again a result of very satisfied customers! Even our first machine supplied in 1986 is still working satisfactorily in Surat as on date.

What is the company's history?

Pinnacle Engineering Enterprise is a company established in the year 1986 by persons having more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing 'Parmar' brand precision lathe machines - a well-known name in India, having years of experience in manufacturing horizontal spindle reciprocating table type precision surface grinding machines. All the partners of company are engineers with wide experience of manufacturing and servicing machine tools.

In the initial stage, the design document were procured from well-known design house M/s Ace Designer, Bangalore, a company promoted by ex-CMTI designers, which is today one of the largest CNC machine manufacturers in India; there after development was continued with our own design engineers and nowadays Pinnacle offers largest range of horizontal spindle reciprocating table type surface grinding machine with maximum possible versions in India.

What are the company's achievements?

The company has developed and supplied special CNC surface grinding machines for Indian Ordnance Factory - a Defence project, as an import substitute saving costly foreign exchange and thus the company is proud about serving the nation.

How is the present business environment?

Well, everyone is well aware of the present adverse market conditions, and it has really become very tough to get orders in a slack market, with competition from domestic as well as imported machines; but our company is doing continuous development to improve products day by day and offer 100 % proven machines in market and we are working very hard with team work to fight in the adverse market and the same has helped us brave the situation!

What are the future plans?

Now our focus is to improve marketing of our products against the supply of imported machines supplied in the Indian market, which will also help us save precious foreign exchange. We have started deputing representatives area wise, and are satisfied with the results.

We have also focused on improving quality and productivity of our manufacturing process and as an action plan, we have installed high tech machinery to improve quality and higher productivity.

(Pinnacle Engineering Enterprise, Surendranagar, Gujarat. Tel: 02752-230552, 231167. Fax: 91-2752-231913. Email: mail@pinnaclegrinder.com)