Shenoy Engg Pvt Ltd is one of the leading players in Indian machine tools industry. Manufacturers of special purpose machines should make their machines versatile to meet the constantly-changing requirements of the customers, says Madhav Shenoy, Technical Director, Shenoy Engg Pvt Ltd. The company is participating for the first time in IMTEX and will launch a portable 3 axes CNC, which is controlled by a Siemens Sinumerik controller, at the expo.

 

Take us through the journey of your company since its inception in 1985. 

Shenoy Engg Pvt Ltd, formerly known as Shenoy & Co, was started in 1985 as a machine trading and job work setup. As we began our journey in the field of machine tools, we found that old planers, which were past their prime, still had a substantial life in them, if fitted with a milling head and feed drive systems. These became work horses, which would yield approximately 5 times more productivity than single point planers. We then started manufacturing our own all geared milling heads, table drive systems and marketed them as a package, plano milling conversion kits. Since then we have converted more than 3500 planers into plano millers in India and abroad. We still continue this business, but has saturated considerably since then.

 

Since this is the age of computers and automation, we now offer our customers CNC Plano miller, which is custom designed to meet their requirements. They can do milling, high speed drilling, boring, and profile machine. Apart from these, we also concentrate on metal cutting special purpose machine (SPM) for high productive output. We also make in-situ machines like flange facers, portable CNC machining centers, portable CNC wheel turning lathes, etc. Our product portfolio also includes other products such right angle attachments, universal milling attachment, belt polishing attachments/grinding attachments for lathes, back spot facing tools, hole deburring tools, counterbore tools, etc.

 

How is the demand for your products? What is driving this demand?

We have never aggressively marketed our products and in spite of that, we have done good business and, therefore, demand is good. The factor driving the demand is simple, good economic conditions & the recently introduced fiscal measures, tax reforms etc! 

 

What kind of opportunities are you looking at in metal cutting sector? Which are the major end-user industries for your products & services?  

We take up challenging unconventional custom made machines, be it a large CNC machine which has strokes ranging from 2000 mm to 20,000 mm or small portable machines, which are hand driven and do not require any power. Apart from this, we make SPMs for automotive sector, which requires high output. We try to make these machines in a very cost-effective way without compromising on quality so that our customers need not worry of large capital investment and ensure that they get their return on investment as soon as possible.  

 

We cater to a large section of industries. Automotive sector, railways, aerospace sector, hydraulics sector, heavy industries, oil refiners, ship builders, are to name a few.

 

What are your plans to tap the automotive & auto component industry in India? 

We serve automotive industry substantially. We wish to tackle this market differently and aggressively with unique solutions and out of the box thinking.

 

How do you see the potential of Indian metal cutting sector vis-à-vis its global counterparts?

Indian machine tool industry is booming. This century belongs to Asia and the world is looking towards Asia, particularly India for reliable and cost effective metal cutting solutions. We are capable of leading the way in the future, provided we cultivate a thirst for knowledge, strong working ethics and be in relentless pursuit for perfection.  

 

What trends are you witnessing in machine tools industry to meet the changing customer needs? 

SPM market is on the verge of saturation. Automotive market is the largest purchaser of SPMs. The automotive market has become diverse with so many models being released each year. Many of these models become obsolete within a couple of years. SPMs are custom built and are meant only to cater to a particular operation in a particular job. Now, if the component tends get obsolete within a couple of years, there is no point in investing on the expensive SPMs. Therefore, we, the SPM manufacturers, need to concentrate on how to make our machines more versatile so that we can accommodate the change in component when it happens or we will lose our market to the general purpose machine manufacturers, who offer tooled up machine with fixtures. 

 

Are you going to launch any new product at the IMTEX 2019?

We are launching a portable 3 axes CNC which is controlled by a Siemens Sinumerik controller. This machine is basically a VMC, which can be mounted on heavy, large jobs, at site and can be used to do a number of machining operations. Since this is a CNC which makes the possibilities of machining endless. You can carry out drilling, milling, slot milling, thread milling, tapping, boring etc.

 

What are your expectations from IMTEX 2019?

We are participating for the first time in IMTEX. Even though the Internet has made the world a small place, a human interaction goes a long way in cementing trust, which is very essential to do business. We want to reach out to more people and have face to face discussion and expect IMTEX to be that ideal platform. 

 

What are your growth plans for the company?

Standardise! We want to standardise a few components and sub-assemblies used in the SPMs. This will go a long way in growing the company. Innovation fuels growth. We plan to develop new products which are currently unavailable in India and become pioneers in it.