The Santex Group, headquartered in Tobel, Switzerland, has its core business of designing and manufacturing of machines and plants for textile finishing, coating & laminating, composites and reinforced plastics.
The Santex Group brings together a number of highly specialized companies working in the machinery sector. Under Cavitec it offers Prepreg coating machinery and coating and lamination for textile fabrics using the Hotmelt technology and thermo-bonding processing of nonwovens. It offers treatment of knitted fabrics in all possible variations and dry cleaning ranges for textile mills.
Isotex also specializes in the production of coating and laminating machinery using aqueous and solvent technology. Sperotto Rimar offers machines for finishing of wool and silk fabrics.
The Santex Group has three manufacturing sites, in Switzerland, Italy and China, and a network of service centers and agents to support customers in every continent. The group has been in the Indian market for over 30 years with more than 150 machines already installed at various customer locations for finishing of quality knitted fabrics both in tubular and in open width.
Mr. Heinz Michel, Chief Executive Officer, Santex Group, says: “The Indian market is very important for Santex for the textile and technical textile business. We have established our own company in Coimbatore 15 years back to take care of service and installation of our machineries not only in India but also to support various countries from the Americas in the West to Japan in the East”.
The Santex Group, through its agent Knit-Fab, works closely with Indian customers for all its constituent group companies. Knit-Fab has been working with Santex for over 22 years as of today. In the knit segment, Santex has a 70 per cent market share in India.
The Santex Group started presenting its technologies since 1992 at all the ITME shows. At ITME 2012, it showcased its range of products represented by its four worldwide recognized brands – Santex, Cavitec, Isotex and Sperotto Rimar. With its commitment to excellence and quality towards its customers, the group will prove to be ahead of the current market challenges.
The price/quality requirements have increased steadily all over the world, and Santex follows this trend for the Indian market too. Many companies have decided to raise their quality standard with the aim of enhancing the added value of their products. It is a challenge many of them are taking seriously and are therefore investing in standard machinery.
Santex
Santex offers finishing lines for knitted fabrics in tubular and in open-width form. The latest additions to the Santex product group include a special drying chamber which acts as an energy saving device, while at the same time increasing productivity of new and existing Santex dryers.
The second novelty announced by Santex is Synpact, one of the fastest compacting machines in the market: a continuous two-stage compacting machine which combines the virtues of the rubber belt with the superior handle of the felt shrinking technique. This compactor, already installed and running with a leading customer of Santex (Kitex at southern India), functions at double the speed achievable with the felt technology, while maintaining a better residual shrinkage, lustre finish and excellent touch of the knits.
Cavitec
Cavitec is the symbol for outstanding quality machinery in coating, laminating and prepreg sector, where fine accuracy and reproducibility is needed, such as automotive, furniture, shoe industry, medical textiles, high-tech garmenting, defence and many others.
Cavitec is a leader in impregnation lines for prepreg. These are base materials for composites used for printed circuit boards, structural materials for wind energy, aerospace industry, automotive, sport goods, etc.
Cavi-2-Coat
The new coating and laminating machine, called Cavi-2-Coat, is Cavitec’s latest addition to its already extensive range of Hotmelt coating and lamination solutions. A masterfully designed arrangement allows the user to coat films, membranes or textiles with one of the following techniques: full coating, reverse coating, both side coating, and the now traditional Gravure (Dot) coating.
As in all Cavitec products, several configurations are possible: from coating only with small batches up to non-stop lines combining coating and laminating in one process.
Cavi-2-Coat offers both the Rotogravure and a number of multi-roll processes. In the Rotogravure mode, the molten adhesive is put in a heated trough which is longitudinally in contact with the rotating gravure roll. In this manner, the cavities of the gravure roll are filled with adhesive.
Isotex
Founded in 1957, Isotex was taken over by the Santex Group in 2011. Ever since, the company has been operating under the name Isotex Engineering, a European leader in the production of coating and laminating machinery and plants with a market share of 10 per cent worldwide. Being the oldest and biggest player in the industry nationwide, Isotex draws on its unparalleled knowhow and experience and is able to offer customised solutions that are tailor-made to the individual needs of customers.
Isotex’ long experience and know-how distinguishes it from most of its competitors: technology is state-of-the-art, and it is the goal to stay at least one step ahead of the Asian competition and draw on an excellent reputation worldwide and on top references, especially for individual solutions.
Quality and customizing have top priority. All machines and plants are 100 per cent ‘Made in Italy’ and meet the quality expectations associated with this label.
Isotex lines are produced for production of tarpaulin, conveyor belt, synthetic leather, air bag, adhesive belt, etc.
Overall, the Santex Group has established its strong presence in the Indian market through its various brands. In fact, for the recent SRF Tarpaulin project, the entire line was provided by Isotex. “I am so positive about the Indian market, especially because those who are exporting need good quality machines and we can offer the right solution”.
The year gone by has been quite good, and the company is hightly optimistic about its growth prospects in 2013. It does a turnover of around Euro 50 million, of which India contributes to 10 per cent.
The Santex Group has supplied its products to all major customers, including Alok, Arvind, Ashima, Dhruv Global, Jay Jay, Mangal Textile, Prathiba, Ginni Filaments, Kitex, Maral, Eastman, Shakthi Knitting, KPR, Himatsingka, Raymond, Reliance Indian Rayon, Rupa, Shivalik, Shahi and Winsome. Most of them are going in for repeat orders, adds Mr. Michel.