The two VDMA Textile Machinery Conferences held beginning of December in Mumbai and Coimbatore received excellent feedback from Indian textile mills.
16 textile machinery builders from Germany, their agents and subsidiaries presented their latest technologies to more than 270 decision makers and technical management of Indian textile manufacturers.
In Mumbai, the conference was addressed by the honorary guests Mr A. B. Joshi, Textile Commissioner, Ministry of Textiles (Government of India) and Mr Michael Siebert, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany. Mr Joshi appreciated that German textile machinery builders are leaders in innovation and mentioned that the conference will deepen the longstanding contacts and cooperation between the German and Indian companies.
Who’s who of India’s textile industry
Mr N. Jaganathan, Manager KG Denim Ltd., a renowned denim and home textile producer stated: “It was really a well organised conference and a strong technological counter at Coimbatore. Our minds are now sharpened with ambitions to improve the technologies in processing and machinery. We cheer the VDMA efforts for converting this conference very successfully.” Other famous Indian textile manufacturers that attended the VDMA conferences have been companies such as Arvind Mills, Birla Textile Mills, Bombay Rayon Fashions, Century Enka, Kusumgar, Mafatlal Industries, Nakoda, Welspun India, Reliance Industries, Rajasthan International, Raymonds, SRF and VTX Industries.
Energy and material efficiency keep costs down
The focus of the conferences was on technology for fabric production. The technology lectures of the German machinery builders were hold in two parallel sessions “production, finishing and dyeing of knitted fabrics” and “production and finishing of woven fabrics”.
In their presentations, the experts and engineers from Germany convincingly demonstrated that German technology is ahead when it comes to higher productivity, product quality, reliability as well as new or upgraded products such as technical textiles. High attention was paid to the issue of energy and material efficiency since it is a key to succeed in keeping costs down and so to increase profitability. Life Cycle Costs was an important topic also during the lively panel discussions after the lectures. To put it in a nutshell: The initial price for a German machine pays off after a few years due to low maintenance costs and reliability in production. The reason behind this is that the investment costs represent only about 10-50 percent of the overall costs that occur during the entire lifetime of a machine. There are costs which are often not transparent at first glance and prove the German proverb “Buy cheap, buy twice”.
