The two VDMA textile machinery conferences held at the beginning of December in Mumbai and Coimbatore received excellent 
feedback from Indian textile mills. As many as 16 textile machinery builders from Germany, their agents and subsidiaries presented their latest technologies to more than 270 decision makers and technical management personnel of Indian textile manufacturers.
In Mumbai, the conference was addressed by Mr. A.B. Joshi, Textile Commissioner, Ministry of Textiles, and Mr. Michael Siebert, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany. Mr. Joshi appreciated that the role of German textile machinery builders as leaders in innovation, and said that the conference would help deepen the longstanding contacts and co-operation between the German and Indian companies.
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.”
The other leading Indian textile manufacturers that attended the VDMA conferences were 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 keeps costs down
The focus of the two conferences was on technology for fabric production. The technology lectures of the German machinery builders were held 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.
Equal attention was paid to the issue of energy and material efficiency since it is a key to keeping costs down and to increasing profitability.
‘Life Cycle Costs’ was also an important topic at 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 per cent of the overall costs incurred during the entire life of a machine. There are costs which are often not transparent at first glance and prove the German proverb “Buy cheap, buy twice”.
The participating German companies and institutions were A. Monforts Textilmaschinen, Allma Volkmann Zweigniederlassung der Saurer Germany, Brückner Textile Technologies, Erbatech, Groz-Beckert, Heusch, Hohenstein Textile Testing Institute/OEKO-TEX, Karl Mayer Textilmaschinenfabrik, Körting Hannover, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Lindauer Dornier, Mahlo, Mayer & Cie., Merz Maschinenfabrik, Setex Schermuly Textile Computer, Thies, Welker Spintech, Wumag Texroll.
More information on the VDMA events in Coimbatore and Mumbai can be found on www.germantechnology-indiantextile.de