The healthcare machine tool and manufacturing sector comprise of industries making products, equipment, devices, accessories, tools, and surgical instruments offering diagnostic, therapeutic, and related services for the needs of laboratories, hospitals, doctors, medical staff, and patients. Medical technology is evolving rapidly with the development of advanced equipment which includes            features and innovations like high precision, accuracy, reliability, biocompatibility, lightweight, and more. Performance of machinery is critical and uncompromising in the healthcare industry.

Currently, India imports approximately eighty percent of the medical equipment used for critical care, imaging, and high-end surgeries apart from surgical tools and other medical devices. These types of equipment when manufactured indigenously include distinct advantages that are primarily economic also enhancing the affordability of the machines. For bridging the gap quickly apart from focussing on building pieces of equipment indigenously for local needs, it is also essential to network and collaborate with reputed global companies to bring advancements in technology to the Indian market. The market size of the medical devices industry in India is estimated to be over five billion dollars and adds about four to five percent to the ninety-six billion dollars Indian health care industry. With the medical devices market projected to reach fifty billion dollars by 2025, the medical industry, which comprises of some seven hundred and fifty to eight hundred medical device manufacturers, is expected to procure more machines.

Carrying forward the ‘Make in India’ plan, the Indian government has facilitated to establish multiple medical device parks across several states of the country to support medical technology innovation and manufacturing. These medical device parks will be placed across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Uttarakhand, and Tamil Nadu to provide world-class treatment at affordable prices. “Demands from the medical sector will increase with the establishment of medical device parks in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. Furthermore, demand for machine tools will also arise from the various medical hubs in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu” says IMTMA Director-General, V. Anbu, highlighting the rise in expected business. The scheme proposes to provide Rs twenty-five crore or seventy per cent of the project cost of setting up CFCs, whichever is less, for the creation of common facilities in any upcoming park. For the establishment of the medical parks, Andhra Pradesh Medtech Zone for the creation of CFCs has recently received a go-ahead for researching superconducting magnetic coil.

IMTEX FORMING 2020 & Tooltech 2020 held at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC), Bengaluru, in the last week of January 2020, organized by Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers’ Association (IMTMA) served as a platform for visitors to see technologies ‘live’ and explore its usage, features and functioning and configure the right solutions for the medical industry. It featured exhibitors displaying new machines, products and technologies related to metal forming processes, near net shape manufacturing, die and mold, fixturing, joining, and welding, sheet metal working, CAD / CAM and application software which were of interest for the healthcare sector. Developments in the area of Metal Additive Manufacturing stood as the highlight for the medical sector exhibition.

Speaking about the opportunities in medical equipment manufacturing, IMTMA President, Indradev Babu said that government initiatives to strengthen medical devices sector by reducing dependence on imports and provide a single-window mechanism to focus on making India a global hub for production in medical devices interest subsidy for MSMEs, and other have given right directions for machine tool industry to work accordingly. The government’s move to consider the manufacturing of medical equipment as distinct from medicines from a regulatory perspective has helped greatly in manufacturing. We are certain that IMTEX FORMING will satisfy several needs of the medical sector in India.