Headquartered in Chennai, TI Machine Building (TIMB), a unit of Tube Investments of India Limited, offers a wide range of custom-engineered machines like tube mills and mill elements, straightening machines, precision swaging machines, draw benches, pilger mills, and material handling systems that can be integrated into manufacturing lines. The company provides complete solutions with automation and industry 4.0 features for special machines. In a recent interaction with Tube & Pipe India, Mr. Baskaran S, Associate Vice-President, TI Machine Building (A unit of Tube Investments of India Limited), shared an overview of the company, market footprint, recent developments, and future plans for the company.

Tube & Pipe India: Please provide an overview of TI Machine Building and milestones achieved.

Baskaran S: What initially began as an SPM unit for Tube Investments of India (TII), TI Machine Building (TIMB) has come a long way. We now aim to build machines and automation solutions for external customers utilizing capabilities developed by supplying machines internally for the Murugappa group as a whole. Considering the list of segments that the Murugappa group has made their mark in, we truly have become an SPM unit, developing machines not only for tubes but also for other products such as abrasives, ceramics, and EVs, among others.

TPI: Can you highlight some of the innovative products or technologies developed by the company catering to the tubes and pipes segment?

BS: Our standard machinery for tubes includes ERW tube mills, cold draw benches, straightening machines, push-pointers, and precision swaging machines. Recently, we have developed a 3-roll high precision tube reduction (HPTR) double-strand pilger mill for one of our key customers. We also build tube handling systems for tube transfer and in-plant transport.

TPI: Kindly shed light on your market footprint, clientele, and product portfolio.

BS: TIMB is already at an advantage considering the fact that it is a part of the Murugappa group and has supplied machines to multiple businesses within. This has in turn improved our capability, increasing our confidence to approach similar big players in the market who currently have the need for capital equipment. With this new capability and confidence, TI Machine Building aspires to make this expertise available to external customers, with the intent of converting ourselves into a standalone business. This aspiration is more fanned by the increased need for capital equipment in a growing economy like India in the category of tube-making, automation, and forming machines. However we don’t restrict ourselves to only tubes, we have ample opportunities in various other markets, such as building machinery for abrasive industries, test rigs and automation solutions for the EV sector, cycle industry, etc. We have recently developed a 3-post test rig for three-wheelers and a complete battery swapping station for E-trucks.

TPI: What are the key market challenges faced by TIMB, and how does the company adapt to them?

BS: As a special-purpose machine builder, we live with challenges and uncertainties. These challenges present themselves in the form of customized demands from customers, rapid technology advancement, cost pressure, skilled workforce, supply chain disruption, and evolving customer needs. To address these challenges, we are investing more in research, development and training, standardization of product design, building strong customer relationships, and continuous improvement of our operations.

TPI: Could you share insights into TIMB’s research and development efforts and how do you drive innovation within the company?

BS: We have partnered with our in-house centralized technological centre for this very purpose. We don’t only take care of machinery requirements, we also provide solutions for any revamp/ refurbishment or plant improvement projects in-house. We constantly benchmark our machines to the industry standard and frequent collaborations with top technical experts across the globe help us in this endeavour.

TPI: What are TIMB’s plans for future growth and expansion, both in India and internationally? Are there any upcoming projects, partnerships, or initiatives?

BS: Recently, we have scaled up our operations quite considerably, constructing a new plant for in-house manufacturing and acquiring state-of-the-art machinery to accomplish the same. We have quite a few major projects materializing as we speak. Right now, our main focus is to increase brand recognition and reach, thereby allowing potential customers to also reach out to us.

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TPI: What are your views about the tubes and pipes market evolving in the future? How do you plan to make the most of the upcoming market opportunities?

BS: India, as of today, is a growing and promising market for all businesses and our focus is to grab this opportunity in manufacturing and supplying capital equipment. A lot of the major tube-making OEMs have expansion plans in upcoming years and we plan to tap into these requirements whenever they arise. However, from what we’ve observed till now, customers today are more inclined to invest less and gain more, both monetarily, of course, this has presented a significant challenge, no doubt. To counter this, we are finding new ways to optimize and reduce costs, a form of cost-kaizen to say the least. However, our core stance has not changed, in providing top-of-the-line features irrespective of the requirement.