About Rhino
From a foundry consultancy to a technology partner and waste-recovery innovator
Rhino Machines has served the foundry industry since 1983 from Vitthal Udyognagar, Anand, Gujarat.
At a glance
Rhino in brief
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1983, by Shri R.C. Kothari, as a project consultancy for foundry and moulding systems |
| Incorporated | 8 April 1996, as Rhino Machines Private Limited; a proprietary company from October 1991 |
| Led by | Manish Kothari, Chairman and Managing Director |
| Base | Plot No. 1A & 1B, Survey No. 434/2, GIDC Phase II, Vitthal Udyognagar, Karamsad, Anand 388 325, Gujarat; works on 60,000 sq ft |
| Team | About 100 people across design, production, projects, service and administration |
| Business lines | Foundry machines (green sand handling, moulding, sand reclamation); waste management (Silica Plastic Block); services (project engineering, after-sales, training, digital) |
| Customers | Mainly small and medium foundries, about 80% of the foundry sector, and large corporates |
| Certifications | ZED Gold (April 2025); MSME registered |
Rhino builds by lean manufacturing: design, assembly, testing and commissioning are its own, while fabrication is done by long-standing vendors in Vitthal Udyognagar, so output can expand or contract with demand.
Vision, values and mission
Optimised techno-commercial solution, supply, service and resource provider to the foundry industry
“We commit what we can achieve.”
Build strong and lasting relationships with customers, vendors and global technology providers.
Availability · Commitment · Transparency · Trustworthiness · Involvement · Intimacy
Develop and establish waste recovery and energy saving solutions as social responsibility.
Green environment · Elevate profitability · increased Efficiency · simplified process (R) · manageable safety (N): person, machine and environment
Recommend an appropriately sized project to meet diversified and growing markets, with a healthy return for the customer.
Commercial analysis (ROI and total cost of ownership) · technical analysis · market intelligence sharing · competent partner
Also: develop and harness skills at Rhino and at the customer’s end, technical, organisational and managerial.
History
Our journey, 1983 to 2025
- 1983Shri R.C. Kothari starts the foundry projects and consulting business, as a project engineering and consultancy firm for foundries.
- 1984Tie-up with Pramaggiore, Italy: foundry projects, core machines, pouring systems, mould handling and lip-axis pouring.
- 1991Manish Kothari joins in October, when Rhino Machines is incepted as a proprietary company and manufacturing begins.
- 1994Partnership with Fondarc, France: planetary sand mixers and sand controllers. Rhino calls it the most important step in its growth.
- 1996Becomes Rhino Machines Private Limited on 8 April, with its own works at Vitthal Udyognagar. First order in India for an air impulse moulding line to a Fondarc design, with RTM mixer and RTC sand controller.
- 1999Licence from Fondarc to make the RTC online sand controller in India; first RTC made and sold.
- 2000Patent for CO₂ sand reclamation, introduced in India.
- 2006No-bake moulding and reclamation expertise through a tie-up with Sogemi Engineering, Italy.
- 2009The turning point: MultiflexFM stand-alone moulding machine, a joint design with Fondarc, prototype built and office and factory merged.
- 2010EcoFlex sand plant designed and the first plant in production. Best Technology Display Award at IFEX.
- 2013Green and thermal sand reclamation licence and marketing tie-up with FATA, Italy. Sustainable Development Goals written into the company’s values.
- 2014Swiss vocational education and the development of human agency begin: Anwesha Foundation registered (earlier called ACE Foundation); with SkillSonics it begins the Skills Development Institutes on the Swiss vocational model.
- 2015Green sand reclamation pilot plant set up; S1, the first green sand reclamation machine, commissioned. EcoFlex one of the Top 20 brought into the UNIDO Global Cleantech Innovation Programme cohort, then one of 6 shortlisted for the final pitch. RoboFM shown at GIFA 2015. Partnership with Ecolibrium on foundry IoT begins, after the two companies met in the same GCIP 2015 cohort.
- 2016EcoFlex showcased at the Festival of Innovation, Rashtrapati Bhavan, the only industry from Gujarat. MultiflexFM one of the Top 20 brought into the GCIP cohort for energy efficiency, then one of 6 shortlisted for the final pitch. Trial of 100 moulds an hour with MultiflexFM and an auto line. Trend Setter Award, Gujarat Innovation Society.
- 2017Chandran Menon Memorial Award, Institute of Indian Foundrymen. First sand reclaimed at Rhino on 20 December. Research on Silica Plastic Block begins.
- 2018S3 reclamation demonstrated. SPB launched as a business. Rhino subscribes to the UNCTAD Empretec initiative in India, joins the HiEERA programme and starts capacity building. Rhino and the Anwesha Foundation present the paper “Why Choose Swiss Style Apprenticeship Training: An Indian Institute’s Perspective” at the International VPET Congress, Winterthur, Switzerland, on 8 June.
- 2020Duraprot protective masks developed with IIT Bombay in 30 days.
- 2021First industry SPB plant commissioned at AIA Engineering, Ahmedabad in January: a 100 kg/hr plant that turns foundry dust and HDPE bags into paver blocks and bricks.
- 2023–24Rhino chooses ZED Gold certification.
- 2025ZED Gold certificate issued on 16 April 2025 under the MSME Sustainable (ZED) Certification Scheme.
- 2026Rhino completes 30 years and begins sharing ownership with employees: founder shares start to be made available to them.
Capability
How our knowledge was built
Rhino started as advisers and became makers. Each step added a skill that the next one used. Rhino also markets hard-facing for sand mixers (Technogenia, France) and core machines (Peterle, Italy).
| Period | Source | What Rhino gained |
|---|---|---|
| 1983 onward | Project engineering and consultancy | Capacity planning, layouts, sizing and balancing of melting, moulding, sand, core, fettling and utilities; over 25 years of executed layouts. |
| 1984 onward | Pramaggiore, Italy | Foundry projects, core machines, pouring systems, mould handling. |
| 1991 onward | Own manufacturing at Anand | Sand plants, knockout machines, sand coolers, intensive mixers, pouring systems, silicate and CO₂ sand systems. |
| 1994 onward | Fondarc, France | Planetary sand mixers, mixer coolers and online sand control; the RTC made in India under licence since 1999. |
| 2000 | Own patent | CO₂ sand reclamation. |
| 2006 | Sogemi Engineering, Italy | No-bake moulding and reclamation systems. |
| 2009 onward | Own research and design | MultiflexFM high pressure moulding, then EcoFlex sand plants. |
| 2013 onward | FATA, Italy | Green and thermal sand reclamation, then Rhino’s own S1, S2 and S3 machines. |
| 2014 onward | SkillSonics, through the Anwesha Foundation | Swiss-model vocational training, run as the Skills Development Institutes. |
| 2015 onward | Ecolibrium | Foundry IoT, data acquisition and analytics; the two companies met in the GCIP 2015 cohort. |
| 2017 onward | Own research | Silica Plastic Block from foundry and construction waste. |
Where we have worked
Industries, regions and scale
Industries served
Power, infrastructure, automotive, tractors, two-wheelers, railways, refineries, steel, valves, refrigeration, grinding media, manhole covers, sanitary and pipe fittings, and steel castings.
Reach
Gujarat first, then Northern and Eastern India, and more recently Kolhapur–Belgaum and Coimbatore. Overseas, Rhino has supplied Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman, Botswana, Zambia, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Italy, the UAE, the US, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Tanzania, Russia and Egypt.