In the early years Nichrome manufactured varied products like Nichrome wires, Window Grills, Rolling shutters, Aluminum ornamental castings etc.
As the business established itself, Nichrome slowly expanded its horizons by taking over various structural contracts.
This was the year when Nichrome faced one of the worst natural calamities. The Panshet dam situated 25 km from Pune burst on 13th July 1961 flooding thousands of gallons of water into the otherwise tame Mutha River. The water came roaring into the city and in less than 8 minutes, washed away its coasts in no time. Nichrome, being situated at the banks of the river was flooded completely. Most of its machineries, steel and other raw materials were washed away along with the building itself. Thanks to Nichrome’s brave team, who risked their lives and managed to tie some heavy machinery to the iron beams, some equipment was salvaged. With the leadership of Mr. V.R.Paranjape, his hardworking team and the support of the business associates, Nichrome came out of this disaster like a Phoenix.
The golden era of Contracting; Nichrome successfully completed various prestigious contracting projects. This era also witnessed the sad demise of the founder of Nichrome, Mr. V. R. Paranjape. His tragic and untimely death in a car accident was a rude shock.
After the demise of Mr. Paranjape, an enterprising youth came forward to successfully shoulder the responsibility of the company. His leadership qualities and his ability to sustain during the difficult times steered the company through the troubled waters. Mr. S. V. Joshi's vision and his thirst for the new, took the company to a new direction and then came the era of Equipment Manufacturing.
The first indigenous Hank Yarn Mercerizing Machine was developed and successfully commissioned at a plant in Solapur city.
The first steps into a new world of automatic machine manufacturing gave a new confidence and courage to experiment and explore.
As a result of the Government Policy to encourage Co-operative Dairy Movement and the research in this field, white revolution came our way. Taking into consideration the limitations of packing, storage & transport of milk bottles, as well as their recycling and huge requirement of fresh water for sterilization of bottles, the Government decided to import the pouching machines. During an interview, the minister appealed to the Indian industrialists to come forward and develop such machinery indigenously.
The visionary leaders of Nichrome took it as an opportunity. Mr. P.B.Paranjape, an innovative engineer and one of the partners of the company accepted the challenge. He put in his technical excellence and all the hard work along with his design and production team and the first milk-pouching machine, which was later named "FILPACK", was produced. Now there was no looking back. Nichrome was the first company to manufacture a Form Fill Seal type packaging machine indigenously and independently. Since then it has been the leader in the packaging industry of India.
The first Filpack machine was commissioned at Kurla Dairy, Mumbai where the commercial distribution of milk pouches was started on 7th March 1977.
The technology of the Clutch-Break mechanism, which was essential for the FFS machine, was stabilized along with the design of two models of the Filpack machine. These machines were successfully commissioned at various dairies across India.
Following the success of the Filpack range, Nichrome launched its Solid packing machine. The first FFS machine for powder packing called "AUTOWRAP" with the Table Draw-off mechanism was developed. Two types of filling attachments, an important development of Electronic Weigh Filler were achieved. Due to precision weighing ability of this equipment, it was widely accepted by the market, specially the Tea sector.
Cup and Auger Filler were simultaneously developed for fine and coarse powders.
Nichrome partnered with Voltas for marketing.
Integrated packaging system, the Material Handling Peripherals for Procter and Gamble Group was developed.
Automatic jar filling line, complete with tagger sealing, cap screwing and date coding mechanism was developed for 'Anickspray' milk powder for P&G. Automatic high speed Inhaler Assembly Line was manufactured for P&G Group.
A series of Wing machines were developed for the small and dedicated quantities. This machine was to become a market favorite in future.
Biggest export order from Russia for a record US $ 1.5 million for 39 machines.
Exports to Russia/Ukrain continued its growth
Tetrapak chose Nichrome as a joint venture partner and invested into the company. The liquid filling machines based on Nichrome’s liquid filling technology were exported to 30 countries under TetraPak Nichrome.
Nichrome bought back its shares and export rights and renamed the company as Nichrome India Ltd.
The Joshi family bought out other partner family (Paranjape)
Mr Harish Joshi of the Joshi family joined the management and board.
Export markets of Africa, SAARC, Middle East were established which helped the company tide over the recession in Indian market. An impressive 50% year on growth in export market was registered.
The company adopted a product segment strategy and focused on few key technologies. New high-speed solid machines like the multitrack, stickpack, stand up pouch were developed. Development of Next Generation Autowrap Machines – called Excel Range was initiated. They were high-speed, high accuracy, aesthetically superior machines for packing grains and powder.
The Company took major decisions based on infrastructure as well as process improvement. The Company exited from back-end manufacturing freeing key infrastructure and other resources and strengthened its vendor network. Company reduced cycle times and developed ability to scale up production. It shifted to MRP- software based procurement system, state-of-the-art 3-D modeling design software.
Aseptic Packing technology development was launched with international experts.
Company achieved sustained year on year growth of 30%+ for 4 consecutive years.
Path-breaking development – Nichrome Aseptic Pouch Packing System for long shelf life milk and juices was completed.
Nichrome joined hands with the leading company in Brazil and introduced the baling machines solution in post packing and became the first company to utilize the baling machines in flexible pouch formatsfor solid product packaging in bulk bags in India.
First 4 line seal stand up pack for better aesthetics and shelf presence was developed by Nichrome for the tea,sugar and grain industry.
Nichrome launched "Flexiblock"? a compact block shaped pouch format with a re-closable label top.
Nichrome launched high-speed oil packing machine Filpack SMD.
The Next generation of the Sprint series, the Sprint Plus line of products was launched, offering a wide variety of pouch formats for snack and powder packaging, from 10g to 1Kg.
Nichrome entered into Technology Licensing Agreement with Prodo-Pak corp., U.S.A. a leading packaging company from U.S. to manufacture Multi Lane High Speed Sachet Packing Machines in India. Nichrome ventured into new industries such as health care and nutraceuticals with this new technology.
Nichrome entered into Technology Licensing agreement with TOTPACK, Spain, a specialist Spanish company in Horizontal form fill & seal technology to manufacture the Horizontal Form Fill Seal Machines (HFFS) to pack Food, Pharma, Cosmetics and Personal Care products in a variety of pouch styles.
Development of Filpack Servo 12K, India's fastest milk pouch packaging machine with a packing speed of 12,000 pouches/hr.
Launch of Maxima 400, India's fastest powder packaging machine which packs 400 packs/min.