Bhosari MIDC has long been one of Pune’s busiest manufacturing hubs. Many of the city’s tooling and precision machining shops operate from its industrial sheds; one of them is T-Square Tools Pvt Ltd, established in 2003. Over two decades, the company has built foundry patterns, press tools, dies, inspection fixtures and precision machined parts for OEMs such as Kirloskar Brothers and Tata Motors. It holds ISO 9001 certification from TÜV India. Today, a large share of its work is batch production of critical components for the mining and technical textiles industries. In an exclusive interaction with Machine Maker, Director Kiran J Jamdade talked about his journey from a trainee in a tool room to the owner of one, and about why he believes this is the moment for T-Square to grow.
Kiran Jamdade‘s story starts at Bajaj Auto Limited. He joined in September 1991 as a Diploma Trainee Engineer and spent four and a half years in the tool room. The shop floor was changing fast in those years. “Before that, we were doing copy milling for 3D machining,” he recalls. “When I left Bajaj Auto, CAD/CAM had just started there.” That move from copy milling to computer-driven machining would shape his thinking for years.
His next stop was Bahrain, at Bahrain Workshop Company, a job-order shop. Most goods in the Gulf were imported, so local manufacturing was largely maintenance work. The shop made cast, fabricated and machined components for clients such as Aluminium Bahrain, a Bahraini aluminium extrusion company and the Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard. The range was very wide. It ran from a special bolt for Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) to signalling platforms for the shipyard.
The work taught him to solve problems on his own. “There was no internet then,” he says. “If we found something new or an odd drawing, we referred to the thousand-page Machinery’s Handbook.” The machines in Bahrain were old, however, and Kiran Jamdade was young. “The knowledge was there, but I could not continue for long, because my knowledge would become outdated,” he says. Indian manufacturing was moving quickly in those years, so after four years he decided to come home.
Choosing the harder road
He had three offers on the table. He could rejoin Bajaj Auto, take a general manager’s post at a company that supplied scooter wheels to Bajaj, or become tool room in-charge at another firm. He chose the third. “The salary was the lowest among the three, but I knew I would get the real experience,” he says.
There was no tool room at that firm, only empty space. Kiran Jamdade recruited the people, installed and commissioned the machines, ordered the tools and accessories, and set up the process flow. He was a founding member of the department, and the experience changed how he saw his own future. “That gave me the confidence that if I can do this for someone, I can do it for me also,” he says.
He did not have the capital to start a business yet, so he took another job to understand the market. He joined a Sandvik dealer and supported customers who used Sandvik cutting tools. He visited many companies and solved their machining problems, and the sales followed. “I never told anyone to buy these products,” he says. “I just gave them solutions, and they bought.”
Four partners and a long wait
During this time, the idea of a company took shape. Kiran Jamdade, two new contacts and an old friend came together to pool the capital, and the four partners named their venture T-Square. Bank loans were hard to get back then. The loan process started in 2003, and the money came through only in 2004.
He used the waiting period well. Eleven years after his diploma in Mechanical Engineering, he enrolled in a post-diploma course in Tool Engineering. It gave him a stronger base in metallurgy and manufacturing processes, which he says still helps him today. The course and the company came together in a way he still remembers. On 15 September 2004, the results of his post-diploma exam were declared, and he came first in his class. “On the same day, our machine arrived,” he says. “So 15th September is a very memorable day for me.”
T-Square began as a pure tool room, machining electrodes, press tools and patterns. Its first big break came from Kirloskar Brothers. The pump maker used polyurethane patterns for certain components, and T-Square built machined aluminium patterns for them for the first time. More OEM customers followed, including Tata Motors, Mather & Platt Pumps and Kirloskar Oil Engines.
Shifting gears
After 10 to 12 years, the tool room business grew tougher. “The competition was steep, and the margins were coming down,” Mr Jamdade says. “So I thought we had to search for new products.” He didn’t want to jump into mass production, which didn’t suit a tool room. Batch production was a better fit. In 2018, a batch production order for the mining industry gave him that opening.
The change has reshaped the company. “Earlier, tool room work was almost 100 per cent,” he says. “Now batch production is around 60 per cent.” T-Square makes components for the mining industry and general engineering customers. It also makes critical machine parts for Garware Technical Fibres, whose machines come from Japan, China and India.
The company’s machine shop is its main strength. It has two-axis turning centres, three-axis VMCs, VMCs with fourth- and fifth-axis tables, a horizontal machining centre, and a five-axis machining centre with turning capability. A cylindrical grinder, manual milling machines and radial drills support them. The machines come from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and India, including a VMC from Cosmos. “We have such a wide variety of facilities, which are not found in small-scale industry,” Kiran Jamdade says.
Unlike many of its peers, T-Square has grown almost entirely through word of mouth. The company does not take part in exhibitions, and online lead platforms did not bring it the right enquiries. “We are getting customers mostly through contacts only,” he says.
Kiran Jamdade now wants to move T-Square into high-end products, meaning components with tighter accuracy and more critical applications. He believes the company has the machines, the people and the experience to make that move. “Now we have developed the manpower who can work on turning centres, VMCs, HMCs, five-axis machines and grinding machines,” he says. “We have done a real variety of components. This is the time to expand, to scale up.”
