Richard Hough Ltd.’s (RHL) aggressive market expansion and product innovations met with great success in 2013. The company has 
increased its marketshare and presence in the Asian market, with India in particular doing very well last year. Mr. Anthony Ashton, Managing Director, is quite happy with the performance in 2013 and is looking forward to another successful year ahead.
How was the year 2013 for RHL globally? What were the key highlights of the year?
Richard Hough has had a resounding year with many breakthroughs and successes. The highlights include development of the revolutionary RoberteXfibre squeezing roll. This is the first-ever fibre squeezing roll that is fully chemically resistant to pH 0-14. Sales of RoberteX have gone very well so far due to the huge customer interest in this product.
Additional breakthroughs have been in deflection compensating squeezing rolls. Normally any roll under load in a dewatering machine will require a parabolic camber to counter the deflection. Grinding machines which are able to form a parabolic camber are not readily available in India. By purchasing a deflection compensating roll, our customer only needs to machine the roll parallel on regrinding. This is a huge breakthrough as regards roll accuracy and hence higher performance of the squeezing roll. The Richard Hough family of squeezing rolls, consisting of Roberto, RoberteX and Resilio can all be supplied in deflection compensating design.
The Resilio rolls have been well developed, and one major customer in China recently found that they reached such a high level of dewatering that the drying cylinders behind the final squeezer were not required. The roll grows from strength to strength, and record sales have been reported this year in India, Indonesia, Morocco, the US and Pakistan.
Which were the key markets in which RHL performed well during 2013? How was the Indian market for the group during the year?
Our key markets are India, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the US. The Indian market has grown considerably during 2013, by as much as 50 per cent over 2012. Besides, now we have our customers spread over the whole of India, and Richard Hough rolls are running in almost all the processes like sizing, squeezing, wet processing and calendering for the weaving and knitting industries.
What are your plans for 2014 across all major global markets, particularly the Indian market?
Plans for 2014 are a continuation of expansion in Asia. Further to our participation in SIMA Texfair in Coimbatore in December, we are joining the Dhaka Textile & Garment Fair, Saigon Textile and Garment, Vietnam and Intertex, Jakarta, during April 23-26, as well as ITMA Asia in Shanghai in June. We have new products in the pipeline. The squeezing technology cannot stand still. We have an innovative improvement in terms of elasticity and chemical resistance to our Roberto material. This will be available from February. Also, a completely new dewatering concept will be released at ITMA Milan 2015.
What makes RHL products superior to those available in the market?
Richard Hough relies on invention as its tradition and continuous improvement of its products is its philosophy. Our in-house R&D 
facilities put us far ahead of others, and so Richard Hough products are not really comparable but are known to set the trend for others to follow. Manufacturing and serving customers across the globe for more than 200 years is not easy to duplicate.
Besides, Richard Hough has the largest range of rolls to offer to customers for varied process parameters/needs which helps the customer to meet his requirement from one source. The company has a suitable roll for sizing, squeezing, padding, mercerizing, finishing and calendering.
The Richard Hough family of squeezing rolls offers huge energy savings. Roberto, Resilio and RoberteX all contribute much in terms of increased dewatering power and long life. In addition, the Richard Hough range of MaxExtractor rubber squeezing rolls give the end-user the same quality as can be obtained from the European machine makers.
Richard Hough cotton and Syncast nylon calender rolls remain at the cutting edge of the industry and the roll of choice from the world’s major calender manufacturers such as Andritz, Ramisch Guarneri, Standex and Alliance Machine, both of the US. Virtually every Geotextile calender in the US is now fitted with Richard Hough Syncast rolls.
What are the major innovations in terms of technology expected in the roller segment in the future?
The squeezing rollers of the future will be aimed at moving towards a sustainable world, with the main aim of saving valuable energy, and consequently helping the textile processor by making savings from the bottom line. Expensive vacuum extraction will be made obsolete by the innovative squeezing roll technology. Looking further ahead, new polymers and composites are the way forward to further improve the squeezing roll performance.