Of late, the main emphasis is on the development of sustainable products in the textile industry, just as in the case with other industries. This has resulted in several new products hitting the market, with varying degrees of success. There are some products which have truly made it big in the market. A good example is spindle tapes from Elgi Ultra Industries Ltd. The Elgitex GX spindles have become a staple in spinning units across the country, helping cut down energy costs quite significantly.
Elgi Ultra Industries Ltd., part of the Elgi Group, has a diversified presence across textile consumables, auto components, agro products and home appliances. The industrial products division of the company produces energy-saving spindle tapes.
Elgitex was the first to introduce synthetic spindle tapes in India. The GX spindle tapes are a result of extensive research and development done by the company. The R&D team closely studied and analysed spinning mills and came out with a spindle tape that helps save up to 5% power when compared to the conventional tapes.
The award-winning energy saving Elgitex GX tapes are manufactured with patented design and special grade thermoplastic polyurethane material. This provides better performance efficiency through lesser slippage of tape. Reduction in slip from 2.5% in the regular polyamide tapes to 0.5% in the GX tapes is the key reason behind the spindle tapes being able to save such a significant amount of energy.
When the slip is reduced to 0.5%, the overall efficiency of the system increases. This reduces the motor load, which in turn results in lower power consumption for the same amount of work done.
The “Pneumaflush” action provides better thermal management of tapes even at very high spindle speeds. All these technological advancements result in saving of 2-5% of electrical energy consumed by ring spinning machines.
Today, almost all the major textile mills in India, including the Vardhman Group, Nahar Group, Aarti International, Arihant Spinning Mills, Arvind Group, Premier Group, Sagar Group and Welspun Group, use Elgitex GX spindle tapes. The use of these tapes has had a direct impact on the quality and productivity, apart from energy savings.
By M.K. Prabhakar & Mohan Raj