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Event review IMTEX 2019 – It can’t get bigger than this!

From Ahlam Rais

This year, India held its biggest machine tool exhibition – IMTEX in Bengaluru. Marking five decades, the mega show displayed many innovative technologies and also emphasised on new technological trends i.e. Additive manufacturing and Industry 4.0.

Celebrating 50 years, the massive show was hosted with great pomp and also attracted the who’s who of the machine tool industry.
Celebrating 50 years, the massive show was hosted with great pomp and also attracted the who’s who of the machine tool industry.
(Source: IMTMA)

Exhibitors: 1222

Visitors: 91,446

With these impressive figures, IMTEX – India’s biggest machine tool show created a new record! Celebrating 50 years, the massive show was hosted with great pomp and vigour in Bengaluru, India. The week-long trade fair began from January 24, 2019 and attracted the who’s who of the machine tool industry. The show witnessed participation from 26 countries and also hosted seven country pavilions.

Organised by the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers' Association (IMTMA), the mega event was inaugurated by H.D. Kumaraswamy, Chief Minister of Karnataka; R.V. Deshpande, Minister for Revenue, Government of Karnataka; K.J. George, Minister for Large & Medium Scale Industries, Government of Karnataka; Vikram Kirloskar, Vice President, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII); and Ram Venkataramani, President, Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India.

IMTMA leaders including Jamshyd N. Godrej, Chairman, Exhibitions – IMTMA; P. Ramadas, President, IMTMA; Indradev Babu, Vice President, IMTMA and V. Anbu, Director General & CEO, IMTMA spearheaded the inauguration ceremony.

Indian machine tool industry

In his welcome speech Godrej said, “IMTEX is an expression of showing a new India and what its industry is capable of.” Adding to this, Ramadas opined, “We are at the beginning of a promising year for the Indian economy. India’s GDP forecast for the current fiscal is 7.3 to 7.4 per cent growth and the manufacturing sector is witnessing good growth in the country.”

With regards to the Indian machine tool industry, he continued that the local industry is globally ranked 10th in production and 8th in consumption as per Gardner’s world machine tool output survey 2018 for the year 2017. “It is expected that machine tool production in 2018-19 would touch 1.36 billion dollars and consumption may reach 2.7 billion dollars. Both production and consumption are estimated to grow by 30 % and 29 % respectively in 2018-19. For the year 2019-20, production of the machine tool industry is estimated to grow by 25 % and consumption by 20 %.”

On the state’s policy front, Kumaraswamy mentioned that Bengaluru was historically a manufacturing hub and is making its mark as a startup and biotech hub as well. He opined, “to give impetus to the aerospace vertical, the state of Karnataka has announced an aerospace policy that has identified investment potential of around 10 billion dollars in the sector during 2013-2023 which is expected to give a boost to the manufacturing industry in Karnataka.” All the guests present at the inauguration were left high on motivation.

IMTEX and ToolTech 2019

In such a positive market, a mighty display of turning, grinding, drilling, boring, milling machines; machining centres; CNC multi function machines; special purpose grinding machines; tool grinding machines; etc was showcased at the event. In addition to this, ToolTech, a concurrent event showcasing machine tool accessories, metrology and CAD/CAM cutting tools, tooling systems and current trends in the tooling industry was also displayed at the trade fair.

Special focus areas

In line with global technological trends, this year, IMTEX also hosted two special pavilions – Factory of the Future and Additive Manufacturing. The ‘Factory of the Future’ segment highlighted the concept of ‘Industry 4.0’ and companies such as Jyoti CNC Automation, Siemens, Ace Micromatic Group, Bosch, Fanuc, Marposs, Sandvik TDM, Staubli Tec Systems and many other market players demonstrated their latest innovations in this space. In the Additive Manufacturing section too, firms including Renishaw, Trumpf, Altair Engineering, EOS, HP, etc impressed visitors with their specialised solutions.

Seminars at IMTEX

There were also specific seminars held on Machining Technologies, Additive Manufacturing and Factory of the Future. The International Seminar on Machining Technologies attracted about 350 delegates and focused on new manufacturing strategies as well as addressed the emerging trends. It also made manufacturers aware about a range of value added machining solutions. The seminar acted as a global platform for discussions on the latest trends in metal cutting. Experts from Austria, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, UK, USA, as well as from India hosted noteworthy sessions at the seminar.

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The Additive Manufacturing Seminar offered a global and Indian outlook of the Additive Manufacturing industry. The seminar provided a fresh perspective on global megatrends, technologies, applications, market players, performance and quality expectancy, supporting ecosystem availability. Most importantly, the seminar aimed at making manufacturers realise that additive is a viable and emerging option for all their complex and customisable parts.

Lastly, the Factory of the Future seminar also presented a global and Indian outlook towards Industry 4.0 by addressing the challenges of the emerging trend along with providing an in-depth understanding of the concept. The seminar aimed at assisting manufacturers to implement Industry 4.0 on their shop floors.

Other concurrent events such as the popular ‘International Buyer-Seller Meet’ attracted 48 delegates from 13 countries. The i2 Academia Pavilion (a platform for academic institutions to showcase their research for the industry) featured 50 institutions.

With so many business opportunities taking place simultaneously, IMTEX once again proved that it’s not for nothing that it is regarded as one of the biggest trade shows for the machine tool industry in South East Asia.

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