D.K.T.E.’s long-awaited needling line inaugurated

DKTE-pic-3 — From left, Mr. P.D. Satpute, Mr. Swanand Kulkarni, Mr. Swapnil Awade, Dr. Mrs.Sapana. U. Awade, Mr. K. B. Awade (Chairman DKTE Society), Mr. R. V. Ketkar, Mr. Sourabh Gupta, Mr. Florian Feigenspan, Mr. Dieter te Uhle, Mr. P. K. Awade (Chairman DKTE CoE), Mr. Sanjay Murabatte, Prof. C. A. Patil, Prof. Dr. P. V. Kadole (Principal DKTE Textile and Engineering Institute), Mr. V. A. Swamy, Prof. Dr. S. K. Shirgave, Prof. Dr. U. J. Patil, Prof. R. N. Patil, Prof. S. B. Mehtre. On the card: Mr. S. D. Patil, Mr. J. Patel, Mr. N. Parikh, Mr. A. Nemishte, Mr. B. Kalagate, Mr. A. Kudche

The nonwovens industry in India is still at an early stage of development, although some well-known companies have invested in nonwovens. The D.K.T.E. Centre of Excellence (CoE) aims at advancing the development of the nonwoven industry and decided to invest in a complete needling line two years ago.

With a working width of 1,800 mm, the system is considerably larger than standard laboratory equipment. Production of functional nonwovens made of polymers such as polyester, polyamide and polypropylene is growing in India: the D.K.T.E. installation is precisely designed for the processing of these fibres for light-weight to medium-weight needled webs.

Trützschler Nonwovens & Man-Made Fibers supplied all the components, from bale opening, roller cards and crosslappers all the way to the two needling machines and a winder.

For the Trützschler technicians, the aim was to realise a hybrid installation for research and industry. The installation is mainly optimised in terms of complex product development, and not productivity:

* The components must be flexible enough to take the various tests and experiments in a research institute into consideration

* On the other hand, the installation is to be fitted with machines that can also be used in industrial production. This gives students and opportunity to study the operation, maintenance and behaviour of state-of-the-art machines that they will encounter again later in their working life.

* The end product, the finished web, should be saleable, i.e., the processes developed in the institute shall also result in the same products on larger installations with working width of 3.6 metres and more.

To D.K.T.E. it is important that textile companies can use the equipment of the institute’s equipment for industrial purposes.

On November 29 of last year the time had finally come: In Ichalkaranji, the needling line was formally commissioned. The Chairman of D.K.T.E. Society, Mr. K.B. Awade, switched on the small but excellent installation with robust state-of-the-art machines in the presence of many institute members, including Mr. Sanjay Murabatte of A.T.E. Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., and two engineers of Trützschler Nonwovens.