A.T.E.: Accelerating sustainability and digitalisation in the textile industry

A.T.E. offers a range of solutions in the areas of sustainability and automation from several market leaders.

The foremost challenge faced by textile manufacturers is to continue producing high-quality products while simultaneously lowering manufacturing costs and moving to more sustainable processes. Many businesses are, therefore, investing in cutting-edge technologies to reduce waste, increase production efficiency, optimise inventory, and trim utility use. Automation and digitalisation are emerging as key strategies to achieve the following benefits:

• Consistency in production and quality
• Efficient production through the right first time
• Optimum inventory control
• Reduced energy consumption
• Better monitoring
• Product quality enhancement
• Enhanced work environment and safety

The textile industry is one of the most resource-intensive industries in the world, with material, energy, and labour accounting for a significant portion of production costs.

A.T.E. offers a range of solutions in the areas of sustainability and automation from several market leaders, as highlighted below, to help the Indian textile industry meet the formidable cost and quality challenges that are keys to capturing customers’ attention and maintaining loyalty.

Color Service s.r.l., Italy

One of the essential steps in the dyeing process is perfect dyes and chemical preparation. Automation helps in preparing and dispensing dyes and chemicals as per the prescribed recipe, ensuring the desired consistency.

Color Service is a pioneer in the field of automatic weighing, dissolving, and dispensing of both liquid and powder dyes and chemicals for bulk production and laboratories. They have been serving the textile industry for more than 35 years and they have supplied their dispensing equipment to more than 2500 customers across the world. In India, Color Service has supplied its equipment to many renowned customers like Vardhman, Shahi, Arvind, Welspun, Himatsingka, Mohan Spintex, etc.

Products offered: Below are the various automated services offered by the Color Service.

• Automatic powder dyes storage and weighing system
• Automatic powder dyes and powder chemical dissolving stations
• Automatic liquid chemicals dispensing system
• Automatic print-paste dispensing system
• Lab dispensing system for continuous and batch dyeing processes

Practical difficulties faced without automation: Manual weighing, dissolution, and dispensing of dyes and chemicals may lead to many issues, such as:

• Weighing inaccuracy
• Selection of wrong dyes/chemicals, by mistake
• Wastage​ due to spillage
• Unequal dispensing of dyes and chemicals, leading to batch-to-batch variation

Benefits: The system offers several benefits, including the conservation of chemicals, assistance in achieving Right First Time (RFT) dyeing, time savings leading to increased productivity, reduced labour costs, the ability to capture online consumption data for cost analysis purposes, and the assurance of consistent results.

Color Service can also supply semi-automatic versions of their products.

TEXPA GmbH, Germany

TEXPA is a world-leading manufacturer of fully automatic machines for cutting, sewing, folding, and packaging home textiles. They have served the textile industry for over 50 years and have supplied many machines across India for terry and bedsheet fabrics.

Products offered: Below are the various automated services offered by the TEXPA GmbH, Germany.

• Automatic cutting and sewing machines for flat-sheet
• Automatic cutting and sewing machines for the fitted sheet
• Automatic cutting and sewing machines for pillowcases
• Automatic cutting and sewing machines for furnishing fabrics
• Automatic length cutting, cross-cutting, and hemming for terry fabrics

Benefits: The automated system offers several advantages over manual operations, including higher productivity levels, superior quality output, consistent results, and reduced labour requirements.

Based on customer requirements, Texpa can offer tailor-made solutions and also semi-automatic versions.

Craftsman Automation, Coimbatore

With the rapid increase in the production capacity of the Indian textile industry, the importance of efficient storage and retrieval of grey and finished goods cannot be overemphasised. Craftsman offers a range of advanced automated storage and retrieval systems that help textile mills cope with the challenges encountered in inventory management.

Craftsman Automation is a Coimbatore headquartered engineering company that has collaborations with many global leaders. Craftsman has many manufacturing factories across India, and they have been successfully serving various business segments since 1986.

Products offered: Below are the various automated services offered by the Craftsman Automation.

• Automated storage and retrieval system with stacker crane
• Automated storage and retrieval system with shuttle
• V-Store for storing small components
• Racking system

Benefits: The system optimises warehouse space effectively, implements smart inventory control measures, reduces labour demands, and seamlessly integrates with ERP systems for streamlined operations.

EcoAxis- A.T.E. Group, India

EcoAxis’ IoT-based smart sustainability suite allows you to monitor and ensure that your environmentally friendly, sustainable assets are functioning at their peak and intended levels. EcoAxis offers proven solutions for remotely monitoring DG sets, HVAC units, energy consumption, pollution analyzers, concentrated solar technology plants, buildings, and wastewater treatment plants, among other things.

We digitise manufacturing shop floors and employ big data analytics to deliver actionable insights, assisting manufacturers in realizing their goal of operational excellence and data-driven decision-making.

Benefits: The system offers role and function-based analytics, facilitating continuous tracking of key performance indicators (KPIs) through intuitive dashboards. It enables performance benchmarking for both machines and plants, allows remote monitoring for discreet equipment, and supports enterprise-wide deployment with management information system (MIS) integration. Furthermore, it seamlessly integrates with various business process systems such as ERP and production planning, enhancing overall operational efficiency.

Automation – A.T.E. Group, India

Textile mills are seeking ways to automate and upgrade their older machines to improve performance and overcome challenges. A.T.E., a textile engineering industry leader with over 80 years of expertise, can automate and upgrade older machines with new controls and software, resulting in improved production, quality, and cost savings. We also offer stand-alone solutions like pre-reduced indigo dosing systems for denim manufacture and dye and chemical dosing systems for the processing range, such as CDR, CBR, etc.

Benefits: The system offers numerous advantages, including minimum investment with immediate return on investment (ROI), improved machine productivity, and enhanced product quality. It allows for online monitoring of utility consumption, quality, and production parameters, leading to reduced operational costs and machine downtime. Moreover, it facilitates decreased energy and utility consumption while offering low maintenance and easily available spare parts. The system is prepared for IoT/Industry 4.0 integration and features interactive visual software like SCADA for efficient monitoring and control. Additionally, it supports shift batch and quality reporting with SCADA systems, visual process control using computers or HMIs, and parameterization to meet specific production requirements. With a user-friendly operating system and various applications, the system can be fully customized according to individual needs.

A.T.E. Huber Envirotech

A.T.E. HUBER Envirotech (AHET) is an expert in providing wastewater treatment solutions. AHET is one of only a handful of suppliers worldwide supplying a complete range of technology solutions for industrial wastewater treatment encompassing primary treatment, secondary treatment, tertiary treatment, recycling, zero liquid discharge, and sludge management.

Our philosophy is: convert waste to wealth. This applies to both wastewater as well as sludge. Be it generating biogas from wastewater, recycling precious clean water from wastewater, or recovering energy and nutrients from bio-sludge, we do everything to optimise resources.

Our team of experts in the field of wastewater and sludge management will be pleased to support you in improving your existing Effluent Treatment Plants (ETP), or for your upcoming new projects.