CMTI is an R & D organization focusing its efforts mainly on harnessing know-how in the manufacturing technology sector to practical purposes and assisting technological growth in the country. CMTI has the role of being a Catalyst and a Key Player in manufacturing technology growth in the country.
The establishment of Central Machine Tool Institute at Bengaluru in the 1960s by the Government of India was a major event in the history of the Indian Machine Tool Industry. The Institute changed its name to Central Manufacturing Technology Institute (CMTI) in 1992 in tune with its current role in the manufacturing scenario in which the machine tool has become just a part of the entire gamut of concerns in the productive endeavours of the manufacturing industries.
The Institute was conceived in 1960 and became functional in the year 1965 under the technical collaboration with Institute for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (VUOSO), the Czech Republic formerly Czechoslovakia. Various types of machine tools numbering about 40 were supplied by the Czechoslovakian government under this tie-up.