Survey of Indian machine tool industry; A.F. Ferguson

Abstract

Machine tool industry is a global industry and a vital part of the word economy. It is seen as a national asset by all major industrial nations and the key to the future development of rapidly industrializing economies. A metal working machine tool is a power driven machine, which works metal by cutting, forming, physico-chemical processing or a combination of these machines. Metal cuttings and metals that perform basic operations are called machine tools. Modern machine tools are often controlled by IN sophisticated computers (referred to as NC machines), and thereby greatly increases the productivity of companies who use them. However, they still and probably will be a place for conventional machines for certain jobs in circumstances where the extra cost of the high tech machines is not justified. Though machine tools form a very small segment of the engineering industry it is crucial in terms of technology and quality upgradation of the engineering industry. Thus, the development of the machine tool sector has a significant effect on the engineering capability of a country. Major users of machine tools are industries like automobiles and auto ancillaries, power generation, electrical tools, industrial machines, railway workshops, defence production units. , . The industry is highly cyclical. It can be seen by the recent uptrend in production. In general, the heart of the industrial health of any country is its machine tool industry. Every manufactured product is made either by a machine tool was made by a machine tool. The Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association (IMTMA) has 380 members, out of which 160 are in the organized sector and the rest are small sized manufactures. The Indian machine tool industry is led by about 20 large sized machine tool builders. These account for 80% of the total production. At least 70% of production in the Indian machine tool industry comes from the 1SO-9000 certified companies.