Redefine welding with Industry 4.0

We want to drive the word welding by changing it to a term called “joining technologies”, which will further strike the millennial generation and open gateways for new developments.

Vishwanath V Kamath, Managing Director, Fronius India Private Limited, in an interaction with Megha Iyer of OEM Update, talks about how trending technologies and Industry 4.0 is transforming the welding sector by creating a substantial benchmark for finished outputs. Vishwanath V Kamath, Managing Director, Fronius India Private Limited

What is your focus area currently? Our focus now is neither on products nor technology; we are in fact more focused on enhancing and improvising our customer’s experience. And for the same, we are taking measures to minimise the welding cost for our customers so that they become more competitive in terms of cost and become quality-conscious and also they can have value-for-money products.

What kind of products have you added in your basket for IMTEX 2020? This edition of IMTEX has been quite good for us. We have been able to attract more customers this time and have been busy throughout the event. We have launched industry 4.0 in action, welding simulator - version 2.0 with the virtual glass which is easy to operate and easy in application, especially for training welders. Further, we have launched the “twin wire system”, which is basically a high-end and high-deposition welding process. We also launched our professional welding tool machine that can perform all the three process of SMAW welding, Mig welding, and Tig Welding by a single machine. We have introduced a new process called ‘ArcTig Welding’ where customers can weld and join two metals without using any filler wire of up to 8-10 mm thickness.

The government has announced an investment of ₹100 lakh crore for infrastructural development. How can welding reap its benefits? The government’s call for these investments is basically in the infrastructural segment, which is very good news for welding industry. To be more precise, you cannot move the planet without having people or technology to do it, and for that you require welding as the whole process will be accomplished only by welding. So, this is an exciting announcement for us and I feel that this can be a game changer for the Indian industry. It’s a known fact that the industries and the welding sector are interdependent on each other and they complement each other to a great extent. So, I think it’s mutually inclusive and we should see a very good growth when this investment is realised for at least the next few years.

What are the major hurdles faced by the sector? There are quite a lot of challenges in this sector. It’s evident that welding is one of the most non-glamorous sectors to gain the customer’s attention. But the point remains that an industry will remain incomplete without welding, as it is one of the most critical and crucial processes in any industry. The sector remains untold only because people are unwilling to enter it and understand it as they’re not projecting welding as a well-paid career for engineers. Fronius is not only talking about welding, but we are attempting to convert this into joining technologies. So, we want to drive the word welding to the word “joining technologies” to make it more attractive to the millennial generation. The second problem which we are facing is lack of skilled manpower and this is definitely point number two. If point number one is addressed, then point number two can be addressed much faster.

What are your views on increasing localised manufacturing in India? There is nothing called local manufacturing in today’s world; we are living in a global village. Today you get food or material from any part of the world online, and just to remain in competition, nobody can start their own food joint in their locality believing that they can beat the market. Looking at the evolving trends across the industry, it won’t be right to pretend or perceive that

being physically available will help gain the momentum. Those were the days when we required complementing productive environment, so there is no question of local. It’s a global village as far as my point of view is concerned. And that’s exactly why industry 4.0 comes into picture. Industry 4.0 is basically the data of production and manufacturing right on your fingertips, so that you can track the activities and realise what’s appropriate and what is not, and take corrective measures for the same, which can let you do predictive maintenance. Today at Fronius, we can see industry 4.0 in action. All our machines which we have are connected and I know exactly how much it costs me to run my machines in a day, in terms of energy, gas and water consumption; everything is recorded. I know how much it costs on day one, day two and so on. So that is the kind of precise control I’m having. We displayed Industry 4.0 in action, with what my Austrian factory is fabricating being shown live in the interactive session at IMTEX 2020. So this is what we call as industry 4.0 in action. We don’t just talk; we are walking too!

In what ways can laser hybrid technology enhance the efficiency of the welding process? As we know, laser is a more focused art and laser welding and laser hybrid welding are two different processes. Laser hybrid calls for a separate filler metal, which is fed into the laser molten booth. We have a system which works together and we work with all the laser operators in the world. With this, you can increase the speed and productivity and reduce the heat-affected zone. You can weld a difficult material with a faster turnout. So I think this can be a good process, but the Indian industry is definitely not ready for this. It will take time. We have few systems already installed in the automotive industry; Volkswagen has our system. One more customer recently bought a system from us to make tailored blanks with laser hybrid system. There are a few systems already in the research process in the IITs. But to get into the production, I don’t see that happening in the next two to three years. It will take some more time.

With growing application of technologies like AI and robotics, what kind of growth opportunities do you perceive in the near future? We are already one of the world’s largest robot consumers. We are already among the top 10 nations, and I think the sector has achieved this growth in the recent three years. Following the unavailability of skilled manpower, most of the robotics OEMs are fully equipped with orders. So, the sector will definitely be driven by automation also.

But let’s understand the fact that automation is not the only solution that you can get. Being aware, attaining precise and brief knowledge, and most significantly understanding the requirement and adapting the same are also important. So, we will definitely have very good growth in automation. We are growing quite well in robotics process and automation. We hope that the sector will be encouraged a lot more with initiatives like Make in India and other huge investment opportunities and investments paved by the government.

What are your projections or business plans for next three years? Last IMTEX, we only had a 36-square-metre stall; this year we had a stall of 140 square metres, and maybe in IMTEX 2022, we will have a stall of 200 square metres or more. I’m very confident that welding will grow if you give value for money to customers. I don’t think growth should be a problem. Even though the market has certain challenges today, we are quite bullish.

IMTEX 2020 showcases technological

innovations and advancements

IMTEX 2020, organised and managed by the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturer’s Association, saw a huge participation from exhibitors and visitors. Participants appraise the aggregated response throughout the event.

Anil Kumar, Director, Angel India Cad Cam Pvt. Ltd.

IMTEX 2020 has been a great show for us as we launched professional tube-cutting machines, one of our unique products for the industry. Moreover, this creates opportunities for customer engagements to enhance their experience, and with technologies like laser cutting, automation and robotics taking over technology, we can transform the entire industrial outlook. Though the industry is huge for both 2D cutting and tube cutting, the trends are inclined towards tube cutting. With people moving towards automation, I think India can become one of the tech-oriented industries.

Swapnil Sansare, CEO, Divide By Zero Technologies

Being involved into 3D polymer printing, we are more focused on sheet metal forming in this IMTEX and we have developed various forming tools using 3D polymer printing. The development came as an attempt to reduce the delivery time from 15-20 days to overnight. We had booked 4,000 business cards which we exhausted before the event concluded. We are looking for newer technologies as laser is already trending in the industry. Moreover, we are working closely with SMEs to understand their requirement and cater suitable applications by visiting their shop floors and ease their process.

Vikas Ghai, Managing Director, GVK Metalforms Pvt. Ltd

We aim at creating awareness among the customers on the available and upcoming trends and technologies in the industry and our latest product launches for sheet metal industry. We are willing to develop or provide solutions and technologies to ease the sheet metal manufacturing process through AI and robotics. With evolution of technologies for the manufacturing industry, we perceive a huge market in the coming years. However, the root will remain the raw material quality with intense R&D for precision manufacturing. I believe if technology and manpower join hands, we would be able to generate quality production in future. Moreover, I desire to train people as much as I can, and create more entrepreneurs in the near

Niranjan Manjrekar, General Manager, Indian Operations, LVD-Strippet India Pvt. Ltd

The event has been good for us so far. Being a sheet metal solution provider, I think the industry is experiencing good growth in segments like aerospace, medical equipment, defence, and infrastructure, among others. The industry has become automated in providing integrated solutions like laser cutting and punching solutions, among others, and with the same trends, we see the demand for good machines going up. So, I am very optimistic for these coming years as today people are talking more about the functionality and features which was never spoke about before. So, we are expecting to gain more momentum in the coming three years.

Kishlay Dubey, National Sales Manager, Vaccum Automation Solutions, Schmalz India

We have showcased products for our two verticals at IMTEX. We have a component vertical called vacuum automation. We are involved more in vacuum automation and have a range of suction cups, manufactured mostly in India; most of them we are manufacturing here in India. All our products are designed with double safety. There are many products which we have already introduced into the market, but the whole idea was to bring new products along with the existing ones under one umbrella and showcase our progress to our consumers as well. So we are prepared to welcome the latest market trends and meet customer requirements.

Nilesh Chanchad, Director, Chanchad Machine Tools Company

IMTEX 2020 was great for us. Compared to the last edition, this year’s expo gave us a very good response for our business. We enjoyed good success at the event as we got a lot of customer footfall and visibility. We are very happy with the event. At IMTEX 2020, we showcased our Server Hybrid machines which come with 11 axes in total. Apart from that, we had presented four more machines including our plate rolling machines, iron worker machines, profile bending machines and mechanical sharing machines. For the first time we have introduced small machines at IMTEX, as we understand that the market size is huge in India. Durma as a brand in India definitely has a good future for the next five years. So we feel that there is a big possibility in the domestic market even for small machines. Apart from automation and high-technology products, we have a good opportunity for these kinds of machines as well. We feel that there is a good opportunity for the next five years in the Indian market for sheet metal fabrication.

Niraj Seth, President, Amada (India) Pvt. Ltd.

The event was overall good for us. This IMTEX have launched a fibre laser machine, “Ensis 3015 AJ” 9kW, which can control the beam diameter and beam collimation. It’s a fibre laser cutting machine and the first of its kind in the world to have these two functions. Talking about trends, India is just starting to develop in terms of sheet metal. So, we still have a long way to go and almost everything is now being converted into sheet metal, and then sheet metal from bio-suit end to stainless steel. So, this kind of technology really helps to boost manufacturers over here and will help these manufacturers to operate in international markets. So, they will be able to export their products in a much more competitive manner as compared to before and the running costs will reduce greatly.

Rakesh Agarwal, Managing Director, Laser Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

The exhibition was well-organised and managed as always. We received 20 percent more business than last year. The response was also excellent. We even got a good stall location, so we enjoyed a good presence at the exhibition. We mainly work in the machine tool industry, in which we are more into metal forming and metal cutting. Other than metal scale and metal cutting, we also have non-machine tool obligations. We have launched machines with the HSE x controller, which is a fourth-generation machine with the latest features, along with a diamond repair laser welding machine specifically for the Indian market. Talking about future market trends, I think automation and IoT are in the stage of infancy in India. Every company is now wishing to adopt them. Nonetheless, there are plenty of opportunities that are arising in the Indian industry because of these technologies.