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25 Years of Neubauplan Machine Design Studio:

Neubauplan was started as a fledgling consulting machine design services on 17th August 1981 by Mr. Harshwardhan Gupta with Electronica Machine Tools Ltd. (Then Prav Electrospark Pvt. Ltd.) as its first client  From then, the little firm has worked for 50-odd clients and designed + prototyped 80-odd machines:

A laudatory article in Industrial Product Finder, November 2006 issue, page 176.

Here is the text of the article:

25 Years of Neubauplan Machine Design Studio

Neubauplan, Pune’s oldest machine design firm, has just completed 25 years of designing complex machinery to global standards. Industrial Products Finder profiles Harshwardhan Gupta, the man behind this innovative design studio

Who is Neubauplan–are they Indian?

“Neubauplan sounds German! Is it a German company?” is an oft asked question. “No, it’s my own firm.” says Harshwardhan Gupta, a mechanical engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, “We adopted a German name because Neubauplan designs machines the way Germans do – precise designing down to the last detail!” The ‘we’ is a bit of a misnomer – Gupta has been a one-man army, with a small team of draftsmen to assist him.

In spite of being a virtual ‘one man show’, Neubauplan’s client-list of 40-odd companies is impressive – Messung, Swedish Match, Pidilite, Milindia, Patel Aluminium, Electronica, Pharmalab, Raychem RPG, Raman Boards, NEI Bearings, Bilcare, Century Enka, Precision Gears… The list of the end-users of their designs is even more impressive – SmithKline Beecham in UK, Swedish Match, Boots, Michigan Engineers, Burroughs Wellcome, Mukand, Cipla, Core Parenterals, Hoechst, Johnson & Johnson, Ranbaxy, Streamline Innovations in USA…

Eighty world class designs

Neubauplan began in August ’81 with an assignment for designing India’s largest spark-erosion machine, the F-127 for what is now Electronica Machine Tools Ltd. Since then the little firm has designed over 80 different machines – from packaging machines to modular conveyors to balloon-folding machines to automated crack-detecting machines for con-cast billets to yarn-testing machines. Some are so small that they fit in the palm of your hand, while others are as large as a house.

Each one is an original design

Many of Neubauplan’s designs are World’s First, and most are India’s first, but Gupta has no patents to his credit. “We could have filed scores of patents by now, but we design for clients, and it is up to them to protect their investments. Most Indian clients don’t go for patents, and we don’t believe in trussing up our clients with patents and angling for awards and publicity,” says the inveterate designer-inventor.

However, he has recently been named as a co-inventor in a U.S. Patent Application for Banknote Counting, Validating and Storage system for use on Gaming Tables in Casinos.

Gupta prefers to begin the design process from scratch, rather than copying or redesigning an existing machine. He says that over time, most designs ‘grow organically’ and are no more optimal, “You cannot get a gleaming modern house by making additions and alterations to an old bungalow.” “So we always ask our clients for a full wish-list of what they want in the new machine, with no compromises,” he says. “Then we create a next-generation machine for them from scratch.”

Though his main focus is on the innards of the machine, his machines display a strong sense of aesthetics throughout. “I can recognise Gupta’s machines anywhere”, says Abhijit, a fellow designer, “his designs have this typical no-nonsense, compact, beautiful detailing.”

Evolving with time

Over this quarter century, Neubauplan has moved from tracing paper and drafting machines to high-speed computers and large-format printers without ever losing their focus on primary design. This characteristic is unique in its own way.

“In India, the advent of computers has shifted the focus from good design practice to mastering the ever-changing plethora of CAD platforms.” laments Gupta, “For all the advances in Computer- Aided Design, conceptual innovativeness is getting increasingly scarce! In these times of daily sprouting of novel buzzwords for same old themes, it needs courage, knowledge, creativity, clarity and conviction to throw old concepts out of the window and start from a clean slate. Today, there is a huge shortage of good engineering designers and skilled draftsmen in the country.”

He should know, as his wife Nandini runs a very successful engineering- and design placement agency for the last five years by the name of ‘Neuplacements’. Another firm ‘WriTxt Solutions’, recently started by an electrical engineer and content writer couple, has been added to the group too. WriTxt specialises in writing machine manuals.

And there is more to the man

Though he himself does not write manuals, Gupta is a prolific writer too, with a unique style that injects pithy street humour into dry engineering text. Some gems are, “Safety factor se panga nahin lene ka, kya?” “Chain maintain karo aur chain ki neend sowo.” “Some (gears) are carefully designed and put into well-sealed gearboxes, and live happily ever after with their spouse in their warm, weatherproof house. The other poor guys are casually treated and left out in the open, gnashing and grinding and chattering their teeth!”

Readers of IPF are of course familiar with this. Besides eight major articles, he has written a column of 20 articles in IPF, under the banner ‘Harshwardhan Gupta’s Design Tips’.

Neubauplan will be training machine designers

Having designed machines now for 30 years, Gupta wants to pass on the wealth of his unique skills and experience to the next generation of India’s designers – a noble endeavour indeed. “Without becoming self-reliant in designing machines and equipment from ground up, we will never be able to shake off the yoke of Western domination in technology” Gupta believes.

Neubauplan is busy putting together India’s first training workshop on enhancing machine-design capabilities, named ‘Design of Design’.

How does Neubauplan design machines in so many diverse areas? “We don’t specialise in any particular type of machine, we specialise in designing machines. Design principles are same everywhere.” Says Gupta rather disarmingly. But how and where does he start the design, “We first methodically absorb the technology from the client, as they knows their materials and processes best, then apply our machine-design skills and create a brand-new design for them. After it is done, it is obvious – and that obviousness is the measure of our innovative success!”

And who has designed all their logos, graphics and their prodigious website www.neubauplan.com? “Isn’t it obvious!” smiles Gupta, tongue-in-cheek.