JetSpray can maintain humidity across all units

Regent Machine & Servicing is an exclusive agent in the Indian textile industry for Condair, the world’s leading humidification specialist. Jaydeep Dasgupta, Managing Director, Regent Machine & Servicing, speaks on the importance of air engineering in the textile industry, and special machines and technologies in this field.

How do you think the importance of air engineering in the textile industry has been increasing over the years?

The textile industry has seen much modernisation in recent years with massive investment in high-speed machinery. The return on investment is increased productivity, but to fully realise this, machinery must be operated in line with the manufacturer’s recommendations. This is particularly true for ambient humidity levels, as faster processing speeds mean increased tension on fibres, slivers and yarns.

Conventional air towers, traditionally used in the textile industry for cooling and humidification, are often not efficient enough to maintain the consistent air humidity needed across a modern factory environment. This results in fibre and yarn breakages, machine downtime, a lower quality product and reduced yield.

A modern textile factory must operate precision controlled humidification systems, fully capable of optimising the productivity of high-speed textile machinery. The latest humidifier technology also consumes much less energy and water than out-of-date air towers, which given the recent steep rise in energy costs, further improves a textile mill’s profitability.

What are the special machines and technologies in air engineering and what are their USPs?

The JetSpray humidification system, from Condair, is able to maintain the ideal humidity level consistently across any size textile factory, with very low energy consumption and maintenance requirements. A series of nozzles mounted in the roof space combine compressed air and water to generate very fine aerosols that rapidly evaporate, raising the humidity to the required level.

As there are many points of moisture injection throughout a room, humidity levels are precisely managed across a complete production environment, without any high or low areas affecting production.

The JetSpray system can be used to top-up humidification output from existing air towers or employed independently. A self-cleaning design ensures the nozzles do not become blocked and the use of compressed air guarantees drip-free operation with rapid moisture absorption into the air.

With efficient air engineering, how can be the various aspects like energy saving, quality, productivity improved?

Optimum humidity control in a production facility will maintain the moisture equilibrium between air and textile, thereby eliminating evaporative losses from the product. As well as maintaining the final product weight and strength of the textile, this considerably reduces fibre shedding. Machine downtime due to breakages and re-threading is also minimised, vastly improving productivity. As well as the direct benefits to the product, staff comfort is enhanced as the environment is cooler by several degrees and humidity prevents static-build up and dangerous electro-static discharge. What are the prospects in domestic and export markets for the air engineering products? As demand for improved quality and productivity rises across the industry, so does the need to enhance the complete factory environment – including the air quality. Humidity control in textile processing plays a vital role but is frequently overlooked with corners cut on quality. Humidification systems that consistently deliver the ideal environment for modern high-speed plant provide a rapid return on investment.

The environmental control inside a textile mill’s quality control laboratory also plays an important role in the future development of the production line. Typically these areas are small and need close humidity control to specific levels. Therefore in-room steam humidifiers, like the Condair RS that can maintain a room at ±1%RH, are ideal.

What is your wish-list for the industry and the Government to promote this segment for the benefit of textile industry?

For the best interests of the industry, the Government should encourage the use of modern energy efficient, automatic humidification systems, such as the JetSpray. They offer improved manufacturing productivity, lower operating costs compared to conventional air handling units and meet the needs of the latest health and safety standards, unlike biologically unsafe air towers.