Air engineering is a tailor-made solution

Batliboi Limited – Air Engineering Group ushered a concept of controlled humidity in textile mills in India in the sixties. Today, the company manufactures the entire range of air engineering equipment which include high efficiency fans, air washer systems, chiller packages, rotary drum filter, rotary water filter, fibre recovery and condensing systems and other auxiliary equipment. Manish Kapoor, Vice President, Batliboi Limited – Air Engineering Group, shares details about the textile air engineering market, disruptions in this niche and future plans of the company.

How would you describe the market for air engineering products especially with respect to the textile industry? Has the market grown in the last five years?
Textile air engineering is a niche market and calls for varied technical aspects with respect to various textile processes. The market movement is based on the main textile machinery sector. Over the past five years the market is stable and not much growth seen in this segment. This is mainly due to stable demand in main textile machines eventually due to yarn/fabric demand.

What major disruptions have taken place in this sector globally? Have domestic textile players caught up with this technology?
The major disruptions for this sector are mainly from variation in demand of textile products in the domestic market, which eventually affects the capital investment. Domestic textile players are catching up with the latest technologies and so are the air engineering solutions for these processes.

What percentage of air engineering products manufactured at Batliboi is used in textiles?
Batliboi -AESA Air Engineering is now offering solutions to the entire textile chain from raw material to finished products. There are solutions for various textile verticals namely natural fibre and man-made fibres from ring spinning and filament yarn to weaving.

What new technologies and innovations have you come up with for the textile niche?
There is a continuous demand for innovations in this product. As such, air engineering is a tailor-made solution for each and individual project. There has been a lot of work done by Batliboi on this front recently since last two years. There has been a lot of focus on the new product developments and automation. Due to manpower scarcity the demand for automation has increased multifold. There have been developments in the dust filtration namely increased area and increased suction for handling larger air volumes with increased cleaning efficiency. On automation front, there have been many additional features like Web and Remote Access both through local area network and Internet. Details can be shared to the customers on request.

What new applications for the textile niche are expected in the next 2-3 years?
The textile market will see nonwoven and man-made fibre industry grow in the coming years and Batliboi is ready for such demands in future.

What are the challenges that this sector faces? How can they be overcome?
The major challenge faced by this sector is the civil construction for the projects which slows down the pace of the projects. But prefabricated housing for air engineering has been a good solution for this. Most of the customers are adapting to this to save project execution time.

What is the average annual budget allocated towards R&D at Batliboi for air engineering?
There is no specific budget allocation for R&D. It is always our objective to give tailor-made solutions to many of our customers and in doing so we ensure R&D spends to evolve these solutions which then result in product modifications, new developments etc.

Which are your major markets in India and abroad for your air engineering range? Which are your top selling products in the textile industry?
The major markets for air engineering are driven by the cluster of textile mills which are mainly concentrated in South, North, Western and Central India. Similarly markets abroad are concentrated in Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Africa, Vietnam, Sri Lanka etc. We provide customised solutions to a process and hence it is not as much our individual products but the project in which they are supplied to deliver guaranteed output that makes them attractive.

Do you plan to expand your current range of air engineering products? If yes, please share details.
Batliboi-AESA has already started offering solutions to various other industries namely food, tobacco, tyre etc.

What growth strategies are mapped out for the next 2-3 years?
New Products and air engineering solutions for above mentioned other industries are the key growth factors mapped in the year to come.