Tamil Nadu Technology Development and Promotion Centre of Confederation of Indian Industry organised a conference on Next Generation Forging Technologies in Chennai recently. S Shakthi Kumar, Conference Chairman spoke about the importance of forging industry in the development of the Indian economy. He addressed a wide range of challenges, including a higher complexity of castings, more stringent requirements regarding eco-efficiency, affordability, the quality of products and delivery conditions, and a lack of specialisation and skills in production facilities.
Vidyashankar Krishnan, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, MM Forgings Ltd emphasized the role of profitability and sustainability for the future of Indian forging industry. He spoke about importance of input material optimisation, improving productivity and cost control to enhance profitability of the forging units, followed by importance of green energy and diversification of customer base to sustain.
S Muralishankar, President-Association of Indian Forging Industry and Managing Director, Super Auto Forge Pvt. Ltd highlighted the current scenario of the Indian forging industry. He stated that forging industry consists huge potentials with respect to exports and the industry must investigate various aspects to expand its product base. The major challenges of forging industry would include the emergence of e-vehicles, dearth of skilled labour and autonomous vehicles.
Viraj Kalyani, Founder and Chairman, Kalyani Studio addressed challenges and leverage the market opportunity through focused approach on increasing productivity, upgrade of technology in addition to capacity expansion. He also stated that though introduction of e-vehicles would reduce the forging contents in a vehicle, forgers must look beyond the conventional products and be prepared to venture into arenas that are new and highly unconventional, such as, aerospace and outer space.
The conference discussed key technology trends in technical sessions like Future of Forging Industry; Advance Forging Technologies; Smart and Next Generation Forging in the Industry 4.0 and Improving Profitability and Sustainability: Aspects & Perspective. Association of Indian Forging Industry supported the conference as the association partner. The conference witnessed a participation of more than 150 delegates from the forging and allied industries.
