Lack of technology upgradation in weaving is a challenge: TAI seminar

The Textile Association (India) (TAI), Mumbai Unit organised a one-day seminar on “Opportunities in the Current Challenges in Weaving Sector” on April 22, 2017 at Hotel fortune Park Galaxy, Vapi, Gujarat. The seminar was inaugurated by Ajit B Chavan, Secretary and CEO, Textiles Committee, Ministry of Textile, Government of India, Mumbai.

VC Gupte, Chairman, TAI, Mumbai Unit welcomed the Chief Guest and Guests of Honour Mahesh Pandya, Director, Arvind Mafatlal Group of Industries and GV Aras, Director, A.T.E. Enterprises Pvt Ltd.

Haresh B Parekh, Convener of the Seminar, while giving the highlights said that in spite best efforts in modernisation through various schemes such as TUFs, the industry is still lacking in the area of upgradation of technology in weaving. In fact, it is desirable to replace machines with appropriate choice of technology and development of modern management styles particularly for decentralised weaving sectors. Parekh said that this seminar aims to give an opportunity to the textile technologists to share their thoughts to meet these challenges and wished that the interaction in the seminar will be highly productive and beneficial.

Tapan Kumar Chandra, Advisor of the seminar, said that the textile is essential in our day-to-day life. Twenty first century’s fashion is very dynamic, trendy and versatile. Today, manufacturing of various textiles are also vast in all the areas with inclusion of speed, which is very high to serve huge population. Keeping all these in mind, lot of new development and research for the manufacturing of textile machinery; accessories would be the ongoing activities. In addition, it requires training of all the work force to have latest knowledge of latest developed machine. The Textile Association has taken bold step to fulfil today’s requirement and will continue to take further commitment to serve textile industry for all the new developments.

GV Aras, Director, A.T.E. Enterprises Pvt Ltd, said that the textile industry is gearing up to its past status due to vibrant domestic and global markets. He reiterated that in the coming years, the acronym IT would stand for “Indian Textiles” as the Indian textile industry is gearing up fully to meet the global requirements with modern technologies.

Mahesh Pandya, Director, Arvind Mafatlal Group of Industries, who was the Guest of Honour congratulated the TAI, Mumbai Unit for organising exclusive seminar on weaving. TAI has set a precedent of felicitating the textile professionals for their outstanding contribution in the field of textile industry. In this seminar, the TAI felicitated Shyam Master, a very senior weaving consultant and Hasmukh Shah, CEO, Kiran Threads with “The Lifetime Achievement Awards” as token of appreciation for their landmark achievements in the field of textiles.

Ajit B Chavan informed that the Textiles Committee can take up the issues related to policy intervention to create industry-friendly climate for meeting the global challenges. He appreciated the efforts of TAI, Mumbai unit in creating a platform by arranging the seminar in the vibrant textile cluster of Vapi.

Technical session

During the technical session, following seven papers were presented by the eminent speakers.

• Guruprasad S Shetty, Senior Manager (Fabric Forming), A.T.E. Enterprises Pvt Ltd, presented the paper on “Latest Developments in Warp Preparation (Karl Mayer)”. He briefed the developments in warping and their comparative advantages in achieving enhanced efficiency and quality.
• Amit R Singh, Senior Sales Manager, Itema Weaving (India) Pvt Ltd, expressed his views on “Innovations in weaving”. He emphasised on the developments in the weaving machines towards achieving higher productivity and better quality.
• Babasaheb Alugade, Regional Sales Manager, Picanol India Pvt Ltd, presented the paper on “Picanol – Ultimate solution for the challenges in weaving sector”.
• Kamal Shah, GM – Marketing, Prashant Group of Companies, discussed the importance of “World Class Preparatory Machinery”. He emphasised the achievements of the innovations in meeting the global demands.
• PK Singh, President, Luwa India Pvt Ltd, presented the paper on “An Effective Humidification System for Weaving”. He discussed the role of maintaining proper humidity to achieve the desired level of productivity and quality. Precise environmental conditions, according to him good be achieved by the Luwa humidification system.
• Sanjay L Gajul, Sr Marketing Manager (Technical), S.A. Pharmachem P Ltd, gave a presentation on “Size Recovery – Cost Effective and Eco Friendly” In his presentation, Gajul discussed the salient features of the size recovery system developed by them.
• Mohit Mahajan, Territory Manager (West), ExxonMobil Lubricants Pvt Ltd, presented the paper on “Advancing productivity with Mobil SHC in Textile Industry”. He spoke on the importance of lubricant in achieving the desired tribological performances in the weaving sector with special reference the synthetic lubricants being developed by them.

Panel discussions

Panel discussions on “Upgrade weaving technology to meet export target” was moderated by Dr GS Nadiger, Research Advisor, Sasmira. The Panel of experts comprised of AA Bambardekar, Works Director, Raymond Limited, (Textile Division, Vapi); AG Kurien Aracken, VP – QA (Weaving), Alok Industries Limited; TK Sengupta, Technical Advisor, Fibre2Fashion Pvt Ltd; and Shyam Master, Weaving Consultant.

Dr Nadiger briefed the audience that ‘3Es’ and ‘Q’ are the key aspects to face the challenges and avail the opportunities to meet the global demand. The ‘3Es’ include energy, efficiency and environment and ‘Q’ stands for quality of the output. He summarised that the seminar has so far highlighted theses issues by various speakers and further reinforcement and to conceptualise the future strategies could be done during this session by way of the brief of the experts and interaction with delegates. Each of the panel members gave their views on the theme of the panel discussion. It was followed by one-to-one interaction. Panel members substantiated various aspects. The interaction as quite fruitful to bring home the futuristic strategies for meeting the challenges. Delegates suggested to have similar programs be organised at Vapi as it would be quite useful for the industry. The seminar was attended by over 200 delegates and the interactive delivery of various papers and one to one interaction during panel discussion made the seminar event very effective.