BTRA dedicates Carbon Fibre Precursor Line to the nation at 61st JTC
Chief Guest Manoj Singh Gaur, Director, IIT-Jammu, inaugurated the line.
Bombay Textile Research Association (BTRA) hosted and organised 61st JTC – Joint Textile Conference jointly with Ahmedabad Textile Industry’s Research Association (ATIRA), Northern India Textile Research Association (NITRA) and South India Textile Research Association (SITRA) during December 14-15, 2023 at BTRA Complex.
During the inaugural function, Dr T V Sreekumar, Director, BTRA, welcomed the Chief Guest Manoj Singh Gaur, Director, IIT-Jammu; Special Guests Roop Rashi, Textile Commissioner and Rajeev Saxena, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Govt of India; and R D Udeshi, President, Polyester Chain, Reliance Industries; Narendra M Dalmia, CEO / Director, Strata Geosystems (India); Dr Sharad Saraf, Chairman, Governing Council, BTRA; Pragnesh Shah, Director, ATIRA; Dr Prakash Vasudevan, Director, SITRA; Dr Arindam Basu, Director General, NITRA, Ghaziabad and felicitated with offering floral bouquet and the Memento. During his welcome address, Dr Sreekumar highlighted the importance of the event as a vehicle of communication to the industry about the latest developments made by four TRAs. Conference, on the day one, inaugurated with the lightening of the lamp by the hands of Gaur, and other dignitaries presented on the dais.
Dalmia highlighted the transformation of the TRAs into world-class institutes particularly in the niche area of the technical textiles and urged the industry to handshake the TRAs in order to participate into the growth of technical textiles.
Then Dr Saraf,in his Presidential address informed the gathering about the R&D efforts made by all the four TRAs.
During the address, Saxena,highlighted the collaborative role of TRAs and industry for carrying out R&D in the new technological projects as these TRAs are more controlled by user industry as compared to IITs and insisted the TRAs to carry out more industry-oriented R&D work in the design & development of machines and as well as development of feasible technical textile products. He also informed the gathering the extension of NTTM upto year March 2026.
Roop Rashi,during her address shared the role being played by the Govt of India for supporting industry and TRAs in view of market challenges, supply chain and ecosystem. She urged the industry to come forward with suggestions during such conference to overcome obstructions/ challenges faced by them in the textiles value chain. She also briefed on the policy initiatives and developmental projects taken by the union government of India to augment the growth of the textile trade and industry with special reference to technical textiles in India.
Udeshi, in his keynote address highlighted the role played by the Govt of India, industry and TRAs during the corona pandemic and the fruitful outcome achieved by India thereafter to become a prominent force in the technical textiles field. He emphasised the role can be played by the industry with the help of TRAs to become self-sufficient in each sector of textile with special mentioned of textile used in defence applications. He further mentioned the need of the full-fledged updated testing facilities at all TRAs in view of ever-changing technological aspects and supportive role can be played by industry.
Gaur, in his inaugural address, highlighting the MoU signed between IIT, Jammu and BTRA, emphasised the need of the collaborative works between IITs and TRAs.
At the end of the inaugural function Dr Basu, proposed the vote of thanks.
Thereafter, chief guest and other dignitaries inaugurated Carbon Fibre Precursor state-of-the-art Line, (4000 filament capacity), first of this kind in India, which is installed in BTRA’s High Performance Fibre Lab. Also, they all visited the exhibitor’s stalls and interacted with the exhibitors.
Over the two days, following sessions related to various topics were held.
Over the two days, following technical sessions related to various topics were held.
Technical session I
Topic: GEOSYNTHETICS
Session Chairman: Nilanjan Sarkar, CTO, Tikitar & Shell India.
Lekhaz Devulapalli, BTRA – The Development of Treated Geosynthetics Reinforced Asphalt and Concrete Pavements.
Shashikant Patil, Chintan Chavd & Deepali Plawat, ATIRA – Significance of European Standard EN45545-2 in Indian Mass Transports.
Technical session II
Panel Discussion on “Challenges to Implement QCO and Regulatory Requirements for Geosynthetics and its Impact on Industry” was held which was presided by Dr Anup Rakshit,Executive Director, Indian Technical Textile Association (ITTA) and following panelist:
Panelists:
Bidur Kant Jha, Director, Ministry of Road Transport & Highway, Govt. of India
Himanshu Shukla, Scientist-B, Assistant Director, BIS
Nilesh Kulkarni, GM, Business Development, Techfab (India)
Vijay Ramkrishna, Sr. Vice President, Garware Wall Ropes
The panelists shared their thoughts related to following topics
- Awareness on IS Specs. of Geosynthetics, QCO Concepts, and Guidance on Getting Product Certification
- Availability of Specialty Fibers and Yarns in Domestic Markets and Imports for Producing Geosynthetics
- Sharing Experience on Getting Certification on Geosynthetics Products.
Technical session III
Session Chairman –Narendra Dalmia, Director, Strata Geosynthetics, Mumbai
Nidhi Sisodia, A K Pandy & Dr Arindam Basu, NITRA
- Development of Mulch Mat and Crop Cover Fabrics using Bio-degradable Natural Material: Sunnhemp & Banana Fibers
Dr Arindam Basu & Archana Gangwar, NITRA
- Enhancing Impact Protection in Sports: Optimisation of Shear ‘Thickening Fluid Application on 3D Knitted Fabrics
Dr M S Parmar, Nidhi Sisodia, Swami Sharan, NITRA
- Development of Aluminised Outer Layer of Specialised Firefighter Suit
Technical session IV
Topics: CHEMICAL PROCESSING
Session Chairman –Anjali Prasad, Vice President, South Asia, Textile effect and Management, Archroma
Prasanta K. Panda, Komal Kukreja, & Amol Thite, BTRA
- Standard Procedure to Identify Dope Dyed and Exhaust Dyed Polyester Fibre
Dr N Sudhapriya & S Sivakumar, SITRA
Antioxidant Cosmetotextiles – Durable Nano – Encapsulated Vitamin E Finishes on Textile Fabrics and its Controlled Release Study
Murtuza Z Channiwala, Pankaj Gandhi, & Bhavdeep Shah, MANTRA
- Promotion of Energy Conservation Techniques in Textile Processing Industry: A Case Study of South Gujarat
Afreen Begum & Dr Padma S Vankar, BTRA
- Printing with Natural Dye Lakes Made from RE Salts
Technical session V
Topics: SPINNING
Session Chairman –Gurudas Aras, India Advisor, ITA, Germany and Independent Director (Rossari Biotech Group of companies)
N K Nagarajan, SITRA
- Study on Lint Content in Blow Room Lines
V Vijayajothi & N K Nagarajan, SITRA
- Effect of Short Fibre Content (SFC) in Raw Material on Lint Shedding Propensity of Conventional and Compact Yarns
Dr V Thanabal, SITRA
- A Comparative on the Quality of Airjet and Ring Soun Yarn Made from Cotton
Dr Amalorpava Mary, SITRA
- Design and Development of Facile High Throughput Needle Less Electro-spinning Set Up
Technical session VI
Topics: EMERGING AREAS
Session Chairman – Dr R R Deshmukh, Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai
Shreyasi Nandy, T V Sreekumar, Shital Palaskar & Dr Neha Mehra, BTRA
- Plasma Assisted Incorporation of Flame Retardant Chemicals for Improved Flame Retardancy of Polyester Fabrics
Partha Bairi, Ankush Sharma & Tanmoy Gangopadhyay, ATIRA
- Effect of Nanocarbons on the Carbon Fibers – Reinforced Polymer Composite’s Properties
Shital Palaskar, BTRA
- Durable Antistatic Finishing of Polypropylene using Nano Graphene and Plasma Technology
Technical session VII
Topics: PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Session Chairman –Ullas Nimkar, Chairman, NimkarTech Technical Services
Neha Kapil, Dr Arindam Basu, Priti Kaur Sachdeva & Mahesh Dutta, NITRA
- Development of Natural Fibre Composite for Automotive having Acoustic Properties
Dr M S Parmar, Shweta Saxena, Swami Sharan & Mahadeb Dutta, NITRA
- Study on the Development of Molten Metal Splash – Resistant Jute-Cotton Union Fabrics
Ankush Sharma, Partha Bairi, Bhabatosh Biswas & Tanmoy Gangopadhyay, ATiRA
- Development of Natural Fibre Based Composite Material for Prosthetic Leg Socket
Amol Thite, BTRA
- A Comprehensive Root Cause analysis of Defects in Textile Materials
Technical Session VIII
Topics: NANO FIBRES AND NANO MATERIALS
Session Chairman – Dr Neha Mehra, Hod, Textile Department, VJTI, Mumbai
Dr Chetan R Mahajan, & Deepali Plawat, ATIRA
- Free Surface Electro-spun Collagen Nanofibres as Cosmetotextiles
Smita Deogaonkar Baride, Padma S Vankar & Tanushree V. Tandel, BTRA
- Characterisation and Antimicrobial Application of Cu and Ag Nanoparticles Coated Fabric
Murtuza Z. Channiwala, Paankaj Gandhi & Bharat Patel, MANTRA
- Biosynthesis, Characterisation and Efficiency against Bacteria of Silver and Copper Nano Particles by Nucleation Technique
Nishant Chandel & Ankush C Kanse, BTRA
- Investigation of the Effect of Solvent and Parameters on the Dispersion of Graphene: A Study through MATLAB Simulation
At the end of two days Conference, Dr Sreekumarin his vote of thanks expressed sincere thanks to all the sponsors, advertisers, delegates, office staff and press & media for their support and the cooperation to make this Conference a grand success.
Joint Textile Conferencewas a memorial grand success event and highly appreciated by the participants from industry/institutes/associations, speakers, sponsors and the industry stalwarts. There were more than 350 delegates attended.
