Established by the visionary technocratsâ€â€VN Ramachandran and N Damotharanâ€â€Precot Meridian Ltd (formerly Precot Mills) is a prominent player in the textile industry. The company offers an array of products in multiple segments. Precot Meridian has units in four southern States of India – Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. Recently, the company’s unit in Coimbatore installed an online monitoring system, SPinFO from MAG Solvics, Coimbatore, for monitoring the individual spindles of their ring frames.
Here are some excerpts from an interview of S Shyam Sundar, Head – Technical, Precot Meridian Ltd.
Could you please tell us in brief about your company?
Precot Meridian was established in 1962. The company has been serving the textile industry for over five decades. Precot has four spinning units with a total of two lakh spindle capacity and also has dyeing and nonwoven units. Precot offers multiple products like 100 per cent combed cotton compact, slub, sewing thread, PC yarn with different blends, PC slub yarn, imported contamination-free cotton yarn, etc., and has earned national and international repute for the quality of its products.
Can you please tell us how the idea for a spindle monitoring system came up?
We have enhanced our productivity at various stages. We thought that one of the best ways to increase our productivity further and to reduce the waste generated is through a spindle monitoring system. We thought it would also help us to reduce our manufacturing costs, and plus help our workforce to have more accountability and a good work culture.
What were you searching for while deciding the spindle monitoring system?
With the advent of industry 4.0, we did not want to be left behind. We needed all the data at our fingertips. So the major factors that we were looking for were:
a.Accurate results
b.User friendliness
c.Less maintenance
Can you please explain how MAG SPinFO was chosen?
It is a cost-effective and customised product with good service support. It is aligned with our expectations as we wanted to be in touch with the activities in the mills on a real-time basis.
What features of SPinFO do you like the best?
It has breakage/speed trend chart. It is very helpful to optimise the ring frame productivity. Also rogue spindle monitoring helps us to reduce pneumafil waste and improve machine performance. Various report options help us to monitor the production, stoppages and also workmen efficiency. By utilising the online data effectively, we are looking to enhance the life of our consumables.
How is your experience in working with MAG & SPinFO?
Very good service is provided by MAG. They are ready to customise whatever we want. So we can monitor any parameter as per our requirements.
Could you share your experience about working with A.T.E.?
We have been working with A.T.E. for several decades now. The sales team at A.T.E. always has a focus on customer service, which helps in building a good customer relationship.
What are your future expansion plans and how would A.T.E. fit into them?
We have planned to install MAG’s spindle monitoring system for all our installed spindles in a phased manner. Also we are looking for a roving stop motion which will help us to reduce the manufacturing costs further. We continue to buy from A.T.E. other products like Truetzschler card clothing, TeraSpin products, etc. As in the past, we will take A.T.E.’s support when we plan for our projects.