Indo-US Workshop Inaugurated
N.K. Dhand, President, Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association. Smart ideas originate from the United States. Smart machines originate from Japan, Korea and Germany. We lack the quality in high precision tool manufacturing. The missing link is the skill, N.K. Dhand, president, Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association, said here recently.
Inaugurating a three-day Indo-US Workshop on “Smart Machine Tools, Intelligent Machining Systems and Multi-Scale Manufacturing” at the PSG College of Technology, Mr. Dhand lamented that the growth in the smart machine tool manufacturing sector had not been satisfying. “How our weakness in manufacturing can be addressed is a challenge. We have impressed upon our overseas counterparts that their role in sharing of knowledge and expertise to skilled labour here is required to give a boost to the machine tool industry,” he said.
He also called for strong models of industry-institution interaction. “An exchange of industry and institution personnel is also required. Students should be encouraged to go to the industry in between their course”. J. Mazumder, Professor, University of Michigan, the U.S., said on video conferencing that culturally appropriate innovation was the need of the hour. “We need to have a road map to develop intelligent and multi-scale manufacturing on nano-scale and micro-scale”.
C.R. Swaminathan, Chief Executive, PSG Institutions, said India was way behind in tool manufacturing when compared to Japan and China. Sustained research was called for in institutions to remedy the situation. Gaps in technology in critical applications between Indian and imported machine tools should be bridged. R. Rudramoorthy, Principal, P. Radhakrishnan, Director of PSG Institute of Advanced Studies, and P.V. Mohanram, Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering, spoke.
