Ace Micromatic aims to make CNC technology affordable

September 22, 2014 6:18 pm

“The main objective of our group is to make CNC technology affordable and we are working relentlessly on it,” says T K Ramesh, CEO, Micromatic Machine Tools Pvt. Ltd.
 Ace Micromatic Group is a group of companies namely Ace Manufacturing Systems Ltd. (AMS), Ace Designers, Pragati Automation, Micromatic Machine Tools Pvt. Ltd. and Pioneer CT. Mr Ramesh shares his views on needs of Indian market when it comes to offerings of CNC sector.
About Ace Micromaitc GroupAce Micromatic Group is one of the largest machine tool groups in India with a presence in many parts of world. The group specialises in manufacturing CNC turning solutions, CNC grinding solutions, CNC machining solutions and automation equipment.
It also has its own manufacturing software company named Pioneer Computing Technologies (PCT) which makes useful software solutions tohelp increase productivity of software. The group has more than 32 offices across India and around 260 engineers active on the field.
Works in CNC sectorIn earlier stage, CNC machines were typically imported, and spare parts and electronic components were expensive as well. People were very concerned about the cost and technology was not spreading at a good pace. Ace Micromatic learned about the situation and offered Jobber from its side to meet the market requirements.
“We were into special turning machines in the beginning. In 1986 we made our first CNC machine. The main objective of our group is to make CNC technology affordable and we are working relentlessly on it,” says Mr Ramesh. “70 per cent of output of metal cutting parts goes directly or indirectly into the automotive industry. We designed, developed and brought India’s first truly indigenously made cost-effective CNC called Jobber in 1998.”
Technology mattersAccording to Mr Ramesh, there are basically two types of technology. One is product technology in which machine gets better in its operation, faster in performance and overall cost-effective. Other one is technology from user perspective. It is needed to understand users’ point of view also. Better sourcing, better engineering and fine tuning on the electronics and mechanical parts make products enhanced and that’s what customers want.
Firstly CNC machines were not used not only because of its cost but also due to non-availability of operators and programmers. Hence the company believes and spends a lot of time and efforts in user perspective through educational training of users.
To understand the ever-changing technology is essential and training and development is also extremely important in this segment.
Specific movesThe group has set up number of technology centres in the country. Today Ace enjoys 90 per cent of its sale in India and has 10 per cent from other countries.
“We would like to increase our export to at least 25 per cent in next 4-5 years. Now that we have gone into large numbers, we are seriously focusing on exporting the machines,” informs Mr Ramesh. “We export to Europe, Germany, USA etc. We have subsidiary in China and we are looking at Turkey, Thailand as well.”
Target for futureFor this year, Ace Micromatic Group will be aiming to achieve turnover of around `1,400 to 1,500 crore. Last year it was around `1,100 crore and it had successfully achieved the mark as well.
“We are setting up a foundry unit close to Bangalore. At present, our total manufacturing capacity is 5,000 machines per annum. However, in next 3 years we would be focusing to manufacture 8,000 machines per annum. We are putting all our efforts to achieve the same,” says Mr Ramesh.
The company has made some investments and is doing backward integration as well. Further its continuous efforts in design and R&D are assuring a promising future.