India can be one stop destination for prefabricated steel components for worldwide large OEM’s

By OEM Update Editorial January 9, 2020 2:27 pm IST

With increasing use of steel in Infra & buildings, we see a very positive growth for Steel plate processing equipment company like us( Messer cutting systems).

Discussing the trends in the cutting tools sector, Prashant Chaturvedi, General Manager – Oxyfuel Business & Marketing, Messer Cutting Systems India Private Limited talks about how integrated Industry 4.0 and IoT can deliver enhanced solutions to customers, enabling digitisation of workflow and production process.

Current market size and trends in cutting industry
When we talk about plate cutting equipment markets, there are two segments, Oxy-fuel plasma cutting machines, and laser cutting machines. We enjoy the leadership role in the first segment, along with holding a major market share in the industry. We are relatively new in the laser cutting machine segment, but we managed to make a significant progress in the laser cutting market in a short period. With increasing investments in infrastructure, steel and buildings, we see a positive growth in the coming years. Laser applications are sustainably increasing in lower thickness steel cutting, which also makes it certain that the laser market is poised for further growth in coming years.

Expanding end user applications and segments for your product
With many architectural designs, new applications have increased. Increase of steel use in the construction segment has increased the cake size significantly.

Challenges faced by the industry
Like any industry, we also have critical challenges such as increasing manpower cost, cost of services, need to reduce machine downtime by moving in virtual services, and staying competitive in the market, to name a few. Messer as a company is running almost 16 different initiatives to enhance customer experience. The company is also investing in various business fundamentals like newer facilities, latest operating platform, and enhanced operating parameters to increase customer productivity.

We also have our own challenges in terms of increased customer expectations and competition, but our 120 years of experience helps us to meet them.

Threat from foreign suppliers entering the Indian market
Now, every new international player wants to have a share of the pie in India’s growth story, but we are the only player to invest in India. We have also invested in our state-of-the-art plant in Coimbatore, which helps us to ensure quality at all stages, which remains a big advantage when we need to deliver top-class services and have best spare part management. Yes, some customers get carried away with low-cost capital goods from our competitors, but the manufacturing compromise gets evidently visible in just 2-3 years, and machine dynamics gets disturbed and part rejections start bleeding you. We have machines running for at least 25 years in the industry.

India as a manufacturing hub for products of cutting industry
With the increasing share of “Make in India” in Indian manufacturing, I think we will have a huge benefit, as we feed the pre-parts for manufacturing products that require steel and stainless steel parts. India emerging as the next best destination for manufacturing engineering parts will have a very positive impact for us.

Latest technological developments in your company’s basket
Recently, our R&D team had developed Omnifab software. This is an integrated Industry 4.0 and IoT solution for our customers, enabling digitisation of workflow and production process. Also, the customer gets all the details on his mobile or computer to track the production status. The machines can now be connected to customer ERP as well. This will significantly increase the production monitor and scheduling remotely and help the client to become more and more competitive.

We have now come up with a totally automated material handling solution integrated with laser machine. Improved databases have enhanced machine accuracies. Moreover, automatic material and parts handling is the new thing customers are looking forward to.

Your innovations for display at IMTEX 2020

• We have the latest high-speed plasma cutting machine with many improved features to enhance quality of parts produced and productivity. Probably the best machine in this segment will be at display with live working.
• In the laser segment, we are displaying the latest fibre blade and laser cutting machine with integrated material handling solution.