How has been last year for the machine tools industry considering manufacturing industry is been growing gradually? What are the projections in the coming year?
Indian machine tool industry has been coasting well over the last one year. As per Gardner's ‘World Machine Tool Output Survey 2018', India was ranked 8th in consumption and 10th in production globally for the year 2017.
In FY 2017-2018 machine tool production was valued at Rs. 7,300 crore and consumption was valued at Rs. 14,700 crore. It is estimated that production and consumption will grow by around 30 percent during FY 2018-19 and the industry may grow around 20-25 percent in FY 2019-20 as well. This however is only a projection and result may vary depending on market movement and economy.
Which industries are driving the growth of the industry?
Automotive sector is the main driver of growth for machine tool industry. However, the industry also serves many emerging user sectors such as aerospace, defence, medical equipment, railways, power and energy, etc. All these sectors provide immense opportunities for growth.
Do you see any technological disruption in the machine tool industry? If yes, which technologies are being disruptive?
Additive manufacturing and Industry 4.0 are the core trends changing the dimensions of machine tool industry. With additive manufacturing offering several advantages over CNC machining there is a general belief that it would replace subtractive manufacturing process in select areas. Additive manufacturing will also work together with
CNC machines to deliver productive solutions. Manufacturers who have understood the benefits of this have merged these technologies to create ‘hybrid machines'. In this process the machine will undertake additive process as well as metal cutting process with quick changeover from metal cutting to additive process and vice versa.
With Industry 4.0 industries are ramping up their shopfloor efficiencies to deliver quality products. The connectivity established between machines and operators knowing machine language have led to seamless operations for the end product. Advancements in software, hardware and control technologies are resulting in machines gaining intelligence. Machines take care of predictive maintenance, prescriptive maintenance, storing of information for future usages, etc. This has led to transparency in the production process as real time data is available on fingertips for the top management, middle management and the machine operators working on shopfloors without any blockages. With Industry 4.0 technologies a lot of thinking features have been inbuilt into the machine minimizing the human interventions.
