LML ancillary starts making aluminium moulds

Minimax, a former ancillary of LML, has diversified into manufacturing aluminium moulds for shoe soles. A new company called Shoemax Engineers Ltd has been formed for this. Trial production began today.

From a Rs 1 crore turnover it wants to increase it to Rs 20 crore in two years.

Promoter Vinod Dhawan told Business Standard making shoe soles had gone high-tech. Plain soles are being replaced by artistically designed ones due to better technology. However, the designs vary.

The plan is to make about 1,200 dies per annum, giving an average of four dies per day. Each die has the capacity to produce 40,000 to 50,000 soles. These designs change with fashion.

Dhawan says this is the first-of-its-kind-factory in the country, in which 70 per cent of the work on moulds will be done through CNC machines. Four machines have been installed and another four will be installed next year.

"These are imported from Germany, Taiwan, and China because we require a cutter with a speed of 25,000 RPM, and the most an Indian machine delivers is 7000 RPM," Dhawan said.

The high-tech product, quality-wise comparable with state-of-the-art Italian ones, will substitute large import of moulds from Italy and China.