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| Centre of Excellence in Technical Textiles at MANTRA |
As a part of Gujarat Industrial Policy, 2003, Government has set up various Development Councils, including textile sectors, for continuously interacting with industries and identifying the needs for the growth of the textile industry in Gujarat. Technical Textiles/Non-wovens was discussed extensively in the Development Council meeting, held on 16.09.2005 at Gandhinagar. Shri Rajagopalan, Principal Secretary (I&M), proposed for constitution of a separate Working Group for Technical Textiles with Shri A.N. Jariwala, Vice-President, MANTRA, as Convener to decide and suggest the road map for promotion of technical textiles in Gujarat. Four meetings of Working Group were held on 03.12.05, 05.01.06, 03.03.06 and 25.04.06, respectively.
Committee prepared a comprehensive report as per the guidelines and scope. Committee identified woven (coating & laminating) & non-woven technologies suitable for Gujarat keeping in mind the raw material and facilities available in the region. The Committee identified and agreed on the development of two specific clusters, viz., at Surat and Ahmedabad for technical textiles. The Committee identified three thrust areas, viz., (i) R&D and product development in technical textiles (coating & laminating & non-wovens) and testing facilities; (ii) Pilot Plant in technical textiles; and (iii) Human Resource Development.
In the 4th meeting of the Working Group on Technical Textiles, held under the chairmanship of Shri D. Rajagopalan, Principal Secretary, Industries & Mines Department, Government of Gujarat, on 25.04.06, Shri D. Rajagopalan ascertained that separate thrust and focus will be given to technical textiles as this industry can have existence in SMEs and generate huge employment and earn foreign exchange as well. In this meeting, it was also agreed upon for setting up of Centres of Excellence in Technical Textiles at MANTRA, Surat, focusing the felt need of the clusters.
Accordingly, MANTRA had prepared a proposal for Centre of Excellence for nonwoven (spunbond, spunlace, coating & laminating) pertaining to man-made textile yarns and fibres. Other considerations, which have been taken into account are: technical consultancy to manufacturing unit, analysis of existing technology status and suggestion for additional requirements/improvements, to conduct case study, seminars and awareness programme., Facilities with accredited labs shall be must for quality appraisal, particularly for export. Centres of Excellence will provide back up support to the industry, complex products of technical textiles in emerging areas need to be developed on a pilot scale and the technology will be transferred to the industry after standardisation and optimisation of the production process. As regards setting-up of Centre of Excellence in Technical Textiles (Non-woven), what MANTRA needs to add to these facilities are (i) pilot plant for coating and laminating for both woven, non-woven and knitted synthetic and man-made fabrics, and (ii) pilot plant for non-woven fabric on spunjet technology, i.e., spunbond, hydroentangling and spunlace.
MANTRA’s proposal for Centre of Excellence in Technical Textiles was submitted to the Government of Gujarat with priority basis, the first phase being coating & laminating facilities along with infrastructure for quality appraisal and HRD programme. In the meeting held with Shri D. Rajagopalan, PS (IM), Government of Gujarat, at Gandhinagar, on 29.12.06, MANTRA’s proposal with following details has been approved with a condition that in-house contribution should be 20% in equipments and 10% in core machinery.
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PROPOSAL
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Rs. in crores |
A |
1 |
Coating and laminating machines with embossing station, rollers, dryers, cure chamber and winder |
3.00 |
2 |
Circular knitting machine |
0.84 |
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Total of (A) |
3.84 |
B |
Laboratory equipments |
1.07 |
C |
HRD programme |
0.15 |
D |
Electrification & other accessories, etc. |
1.05 |
Grand Total (A+B + C + D) |
6.11 |
In-house contribution = (5.4 x 0.10) + (1.07 x 0.20) = Rs.0.71 crore(approx.) |
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| PREFERENCE OF COATING & LAMINATIN FACILITIES AS PHASE-1 |
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Coating and laminating are textile finishing processes designed to add or improve function and to add value to woven, non-woven and knitted fabrics or to create a finished fabric with specific properties. Coated and laminated textiles cut across all industry segments, viz., filtration, conveyor belts, luggage, furniture, tarpaulin, protective clothing, geo textiles, sports, medicine, air bags, hoardings, defense textiles, etc.
All the raw materials like polyester, polyamide, PP, acrylic fibres are available in Surat along with finishes like PVC, PU, Neoprene, anti-microbial, FR, waterproof, etc. Further, all the pre-weaving and weaving machines, viz., rapier, water jet, air jet, and finishing facilities with stenter are also available. What we basically need is coating and laminating facilities. Implementation of this project is faster, quicker, need based. So, it was decided to go for coating facilities in the first phase, so that existing industry cluster can avail the facilities for diversification and value addition in their products. |
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| IN-HOUSE CONTRIBUTION |
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Facilities under Phase-1, which will be available at MANTRA, will be a source of technology development, information gathering and manpower development, available under one roof, which will cater to the needs of the existing industry for product diversification and value addition.
In this respect, MANTRA has been only instrumental in bringing the facilities in Surat, however, it will be industry’s interest to take advantage of it and secure maximum benefit.
As far as in-house contribution is concerned, we would like to appeal to the local entrepreneurs, associations, etc., to help us in raising the required amount so that the project can be implemented successfully. |
Centre of Excellence in
Agrotextiles at MANTRA |
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Technical textiles are
`textile materials and products manufactured primarily
for their technical performance and functional properties
rather than their aesthetic or decorative characteristics.
Latest survey on market projections of technical textiles
upto 2010 reveal that this value will reach US
$ 126 billion by 2010.
India with its vast textile base,
has the potential to grab a substantial share of the
world market in the next few years time. Considering
this emerging field, Government of India (GOI) has
taken various measures to promote technical textiles
and facilitate the growth and expansion of Technical
Textiles. With this view point, the GOI has sanctioned
various Centres of Excellence (COEs) for fulfillment
of specific objectives in different segments of
Technical Textiles.
MANTRA has been designated as Centre of Excellence
in Agrotech by Government of India along with
Synthetic Art Silk Mills’ Research Association (SASMIRA)
as a Lead Association and Navsari Agricultural University
(NAU),Navsari, and IIT Delhi as Knowledge Partner.These
Centres of Excellence will provide state-of-the-art
facilities for testing of agro-textile products,
R&D, quality appraisal, product development (pilot plant)
& HRD and single window information and knowledge centre.
This will help parallel growth of textile as well as
technical textile industry in India in general and
South Gujarat in particular.
The COE for Agrotextiles
has been assigned to Man-Made Textiles Research
Association (MANTRA), jointly with The Synthetic
and Art Silk Mills Research Association (SASMIRA)
as the lead agency jointly with Navsari
Agricultural University (NAU), Navsari.
The Centre of Excellence is proposed with a
vision to fulfill the following mission:-
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Vision
“To become a world class leading service
driven and research based international technical
textile association to serve the industry in general
and agriculture sector in particular”.
Mission
(A)Creating awareness regarding agrotextiles products amongst agriculturists.
(B)To increase productivity by protection of crops
(C)To assist in early harvesting by use of agrotextile products.
(D)Providing soil covering systems and controlling irrigation using agrotextiles.
(E)To create state-of-art testing certification facilities for agrotextiles products.
(F)To assist the industry for entrepreneurship in the field of agrotextiles.
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| Role of
MANTRA |
Centre of Excellence
at MANTRA, has been equipped with the facilities
of weaving, knitting, chemical finishing and coating
and lamination. World class state-of-the-art testing
facilities and training facilities for agrotextile
products would be set-up at MANTRA. It will also
house an Information Centre for Agrotextile with the
base at SASMIRA linked via satellite. The information
centres will also be linked with other universities
and organizations nationally and internationally.
Training related to coating and finishing of
agrotextile products would be provided.
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Role of SASMIRA
Being the Lead Agency, the Centre of Excellence would be based
at SASMIRA, Mumbai. The organization will set-up the major
training facility along with the testing facility for most of
the agrotextile testing. The key Information Centre would be
set-up at SASMIRA, which would be linked to the other partners
via satellite.
Role of NAU
This department would be chiefly responsible for interaction
with the agriculturalist and allied industries for awareness
and promotion of agrotextiles. The staff at NAU would assist
in training and field trials/commercialization of the
agrotextile products. A centre for exhibition-cum-
demonstration for agrotextile products and their application
will be created at NAU, mainly for the purpose of awareness
and training in the filed of agrotextiles. The already
existing library at NAU would be upgraded to provide the
latest information on agriculture and agrotextiles to serve
as a supplementary information centre linked to the main
centre at SASMIRA via satellite. The new developments in
agrotextile taken up for research and development would have
NAU staff as consultants.
Facilities that will be set-up under COE in agro-textiles are
for laboratories, training and demonstration.
1. Nationally/Internationally Accreditated Testing
Facility for Agro-textiles
Testing facilities to be set-up under COE in
Agro-textiles at MANTRA and their purpose
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| 1 | Vibrodyne | Measures denier. |
| 2 | Hydrodynamic Sieve Tester | For particle size analysis. |
| 3 | Film Thickness Tester | Measures thickness of coated films. |
| 4 | Water Permeability
(In Plane) | To measure water permeability horizontal (In plane) without load through fabric sample. |
| 5 | Shear Tester | For frictional properties measurement. |
| 6 | Forced Air Laboratory Oven | For moist heat hydrolysis analysis. |
| 7 | Water Vapour
Transmission Tester
| Measures water vapour permeability through agrotextiles. |
| 8 | Cold Crack Tester | Measures storage stability upto minus 40°C. |
| 9 | Weatherometer | To measure weathering resistance and storage and life of material. |
| 10 | CBR Puncutre Test | Measures resistance to puncture of soil covers. |
| 11 | Wind Blocking
Percentage
| To measure wind blocking capacity of wind shields, shade nets and crop covers. |
| 12 | Agrotextile Light
Shading Percentage
Pullout Resistance in Soil | Measures percentage of light transmitted through agro-textiles. |
| 13 | Pullout Resistance in Soil | Measures friction between soil & fabric. |
| 14 | Apparent Opening
Size of Geo-textile
| Evaluating porosity of soil covers and landscaping textiles. |
| 15 | Taber Abrasion Tester | For measuring abrasion resistance. |
| 16 | UPF Tester | To measure ultraviolet transmission levels through fabrics. |
| 17 | Apparatus for Co-efficient of Friction Between Soil & Fabric | Measures friction between soil & fabric. |
Above facilities will be accredited by national and international bodies.
2. Training Centre
Full-fledged Training Centre will be set-up
under the umbrella of COE for training of skilled workers,
middle and top level manager and entrepreneurs.
3. Information Centre
Information Centre will be equipped with books,
journals, test standards, industry statistics and fabric
samples. The Centre will be having computerized set-up
and linked with Universities, Research Bodies and
national and international associations.
Above facilities will be accredited by national and
international bodies.
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