Forms and Gears has been creating building fixtures for more than 50 years now. This company is Asia’s oldest and best-known company for fixing buildings. They have been part of several prominent projects with India and abroad for the last 5 decades. Not so many companies have been able to achieve this milestone.
Forms and Gears was founded back in 1972 by RT Varghese, a Mechanical Engineer from IIT Kharagpur. The company is now being run by his son and daughter, daughter Reji and Annu Varghese after he passed away in 2001.
Multiple generations of employees
Form and Gears has had three generations of employees, who include the founder’s son and daughter that are currently running the company. Most of the employees that have been part of this company started from lower positions and went up the ranks after gaining more expertise and experience.
A good example is Reji Varghese, the managing director. He joined Forms and Gears in 1987 as an operator of the Burkhart Jig Boring machine. He operated this machine for a couple of years before being elevated to more senior positions along the way.
Working with ASM Technologies
ASM Technologies acquired the majority stake in Forms and Gears which gave it control over some of the operations of this company. ASM Technologies is a publicly listed Engineering Services and Design company with over 1,200 engineers. They now have a significant number of their team dedicated to Fixtures, Special Machines, and other works related to this.
Best in class facilities
Forms and Gears invested in building two state-of-the-art factories at Guindy, all located in Chennai. They also boost one of the best and most equipped private tool room facilities in India. Thanks to its production capacity and quality of work, the company now exports its products to over 10 countries including several Japanese machining centres.
Smartfix 4.0
One of the major innovations that Forms and Gears has worked on is Smartfix 4.0. This is the world’s first-ever solution for Fixtures and Workholding built for industry 4.0. Forms and Gears collaborated with ASM Technologies to build this device. Smartfix 4.0 is a Precision Workholding Device that can collect, transmit, and analyse data in a format that is easy to understand for the end-user.
Accolades won
As you might have guessed, Forms and Gears has won some accolades during its 50 years of operation. Their Smartfix 4.0 device won them a prestigious Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Industrial Innovation Award 2020 under the ‘Top 25 Most Innovative Companies’ category.
Built to last
Forms and Gears fixtures are very durable and once installed will last several years before you think of replacing them. They design their fixtures for various environments, which is the reason they remain intact even in harsh conditions. Forms and Gears also use different manufacturing techniques to achieve the robustness and reliability we see with their products.
Their fixtures are also designed and built in a way that makes them different from what their competitors offer. These fixtures have some components that are designed and manufactured with extraordinary tolerances, improved rigidity, stability, and vibration-damping capabilities to ensure durability.
Overall, Forms and Gears is one of those small Indian companies that have created a dent in India’s manufacturing industry. It has stood the test of time and withstood several macro and micro challenges, including recessions, slowdowns, technology changes, and several disruptions that several companies didn’t manage to overcome.
