A.T.E. – Accelerating Sustainability And Digitalisation In Textile Industry Through Automation

The foremost challenge faced by textile manufacturers is to continue producing high-quality products while simultaneously lowering manufacturing costs and moving to more sustainable processes. Many businesses are, therefore, investing in cutting-edge technologies to reduce waste, increase production efficiency, optimise inventory and trim utility use. Automation and digitalisation are emerging as key strategies to achieve the following benefits:

• Consistency in production and quality
• Efficient production through Right First Time (RFT)
• Optimum inventory control
• Reduced energy consumption
• Better monitoring
• Product quality enhancement
• Enhanced work environment and safety

The textile industry is one of the most resource-intensive industries in the world, with material, energy and labour accounting for a significant portion of production costs.

A.T.E. offers a range of solutions in the areas of sustainability and automation from several market leaders, as highlighted below, to help the Indian textile industry meet the formidable cost and quality challenges that are keys to capturing customers’ attention and maintaining loyalty.

Color Service s.r.l., Italy
One of the essential steps in the dyeing process is perfect dyes and chemical preparation. Automation helps in preparing and dispensing dyes and chemicals as per the prescribed recipe, ensuring the desired consistency.

Color Service is a pioneer in the field of automatic weighing, dissolving and dispensing of both liquid and powder dyes and chemicals for bulk production and laboratories. They have been serving the textile industry for more than 35 years and they have supplied their dispensing equipment to more than 2500 customers across the world. In India, Color Service has supplied its equipment to many renowned customers, including Vardhman, Shahi, Arvind, Welspun, Himatsingka, Mohan Spintex, among others.

 Products offered

• Automatic powder dyes storage and weighing system
• Automatic powder dyes and powder chemical dissolving stations
• Automatic liquid chemicals dispensing system
• Automatic print-paste dispensing system
• Lab dispensing system for continuous and batch dyeing processes

 Practical difficulties faced without automation​
Manual weighing, dissolution and dispensing of dyes and chemicals may lead to many issues, such as:

• Weighing inaccuracy
• Selection of wrong dyes/chemicals by mistake
• Wastage​ due to spillage
• Unequal dispensing of dyes and chemicals, leading to batch-to-batch variation

Benefits of automation 

• Saves chemicals​
• Helps in RFT (Right First Time) dyeing​
• Saves time, increases productivity​
• Saves labour costs​
• Online consumption data can be captured which will help with cost analysis
• Consistent results

Color Service can also supply semi-automatic versions of their products.

TEXPA GmbH, Germany
TEXPA is a world-leading manufacturer of fully automatic machines for cutting, sewing, folding and packaging home textiles. They have served the textile industry for over 50 years and have supplied many machines across India for terry and bedsheet fabrics.

Products offered

• Automatic cutting and sewing machines for flat-sheet
• Automatic cutting and sewing machines for the fitted sheet
• Automatic cutting and sewing machines for pillowcases
• Automatic cutting and sewing machines for furnishing fabrics
• Automatic length cutting, cross-cutting, and hemming for terry fabrics

Benefits

• High productivity compared to manual operations
• High quality
• Consistency in results
• Less labour

Based on customer requirements, Texpa can offer tailor-made solutions and also semi-automatic versions.

 Craftsman Automation Ltd
 With the rapid increase in the production capacity of the Indian textile industry, the importance of efficient storage and retrieval of grey and finished goods cannot be overemphasised. Craftsman offers a range of advanced automated storage and retrieval systems that help textile mills cope with the challenges encountered in inventory management.

Craftsman Automation Ltd is a Coimbatore-headquartered engineering company that has collaborations with many global leaders. Craftsman has many manufacturing factories across India, and they have been successfully serving various business segments since 1986.

Products offered

• Automated storage and retrieval system with stacker crane
• Automated storage and retrieval system with shuttle
• V-Store for storing small components
• Racking system

Benefits  

• Effective use of warehouse space
• Smart inventory control
• Less labour requirement
• Can be connected with ERP

EcoAxis– A.T.E. Group, India
EcoAxis’ IoT-based smart sustainability suite allows you to monitor and ensure that your environmentally friendly, sustainable assets are functioning at their peak and intended levels. EcoAxis offers proven solutions for remotely monitoring DG sets, HVAC units, energy consumption, pollution analyzers, concentrated solar technology plants, buildings, and wastewater treatment plants, among other things.

EcoAxis digitises manufacturing shop floors and employs big data analytics to deliver actionable insights, assisting manufacturers in realizing their goal of operational excellence and data-driven decision-making.

Benefits

• Role and function-based analytics
• Continuous tracking of KPIs through dashboards
• Performance benchmarking for machines and plants
• Remote monitoring for discreet equipment
• Enterprise-wide deployment with MIS integration
• Integration with business process systems like ERP, production planning, etc.

Automation – A.T.E. Group, India 
Textile mills are seeking ways to automate and upgrade their older machines to improve performance and overcome challenges. A.T.E., a textile engineering industry leader with over 80 years of expertise, can automate and upgrade older machines with new controls and software, resulting in improved production, quality and cost savings. A.T.E. also offers stand-alone solutions like pre-reduced indigo dosing systems for denim manufacture and dye and chemical dosing systems for the processing range, such as CDR, CBR, etc.

Benefits

• Minimum investment and immediate ROI
• Enhanced machine productivity and product quality
• Online monitoring of utility consumption, quality and production parameters
• Reduced operational cost and machine downtime
• Reduced consumption of energy and other utilities
• Low maintenance, easily available spares
• Ready for IoT/Industry 4.0
• Interactive visual software such as SCADA
• Shift batch and quality reporting with SCADA systems
• Visual process control using computers or HMIs
• Parameterisation for meeting production requirements
• User-friendly operating system with various applications
• Complete customisation as per customer’s needs

 A.T.E. Huber Envirotech Pvt Ltd, India
 A.T.E. Huber Envirotech (AHET) is an expert in providing wastewater treatment solutions. AHET is one of only a handful of suppliers worldwide supplying a complete range of technology solutions for industrial wastewater treatment encompassing primary treatment, secondary treatment, tertiary treatment, recycling, zero liquid discharge and sludge management.

AHET’s philosophy is: Convert waste to wealth. This applies to both wastewater as well as sludge. Be it generating biogas from wastewater, recycling precious clean water from wastewater, or recovering energy and nutrients from bio-sludge, AHET does everything to optimise resources.

AHET’s team of experts in the field of wastewater and sludge management supports customers in improving their existing Effluent Treatment Plants (ETP), or for their upcoming new projects.