Zen Industrial Engineers has recently introduced a jigger machine which works with zero tension on the fabric. After going through the machine, the fabric still retains its original look and feel unlike in the existing models where the fabric gets stretched and elongated.
The Vapi-based Zen Industrial Engineers, producing textile fabric processing machinery, was started by Mr. Nanubhai Karkar in 1990. Mr. Karkar started the company with his rich background as a Textile Engineer at the Gujarat-based Harish Textile Engineers.
Zen Industrial produces gas singeing machines are used to mainly provide surface finish to fabrics by removing the hairiness over the surface of the fabric and giving it an even finish. It also produces decatising machines used for ironing of fabrics.
Zen’s infrastructure is spread over 4,600 sq. metres and is equipped with the latest machinery. It is well segmented into different parts, with each production segment allotted a different space so that all activities continue without interruption. Vapi is an industrial hub of Gujarat, and so the location has easy access to raw materials, labour and an efficient transportation system.
Zen Industrial has appointed marketing agents all over India and has also hired resident engineers in textile hubs like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Bhilwara, Balotra, Faridabad, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Erode, who provide after-sales service.
Recently, the company has introduced a jigger machine, developed in-house, which works with zero tension on the fabric. The fabric, according to Mr Karkar, which even after having gone through the machine, still retains its original look and feel, as against in existing models, where the fabric gets stretched and elongated.
Explaining the difference between the existing and the new technology, he says: “In the case of existing models, there are two rolls, in which one roll is drawing and other is driven, while in our machine, both rolls are driven, due to which there is no tension on the fabric, and so the fabric does not get stretched or elongated.”
Further, “in the existing jigger models, if 1,000 metres were to be processed, one will get around 1,050 to 1,070 metres after the fabric is dyed, while in our technology, the fabric length will remain unchanged at 1,000 metres, thereby retaining the original feel and look of the fabric. We offer the same technology at one-fourth the price of an imported one,” he adds.
The liquor ratio of the jigger machine from Zen Industrial is also very low. Compared to 250 litres used by the existing machines in the market, the Zen technology uses just 75 litres. Power consumption has also been reduced by 40 per cent using ball bearings instead of bush bearings used in the existing technologies. As a result, the Zen jigger runs on a lower HP motor and also lower ampere load, while water consumption is also one-third.
Since last 10 years, Zen Industrial has been reporting a steady growth, and Mr. Karkar claims that its gas singeing machines have a market share of 45 per cent, while the decatizing machine has a 60 per cent share of the overall Indian textile industry market. It has exported its gas singeing machines to Indonesia, Iran, the UK, Australia and a basic core of the machine to the US also. It has supplied decatizing machines in the UAE and Israeli market.
He, however, laments that although they are in a position to provide technology at par with the ones offered by foreign companies and although their technologies are priced very competitively vis-à-vis the imported machines, major Indian textile companies still prefer the imported machines.
Zen has also developed new technology by adding electronics and sensors to the gas singeing machine and bringing it on par with the imported technologies and, as of now, has sold these machines to Arvind Mills in Ahmedabad, Maharaja Shree Umaid Mills Ltd., Pali, Rajasthan, and another one to a company in Faridabad.
At ITMA 2015, the company will be showcasing the gas singeing machine, but is not introducing the jigger at the world’s biggest textile technology fair. He again lamented the fact that at an earlier fair in Singapore, they did not have any foreign visitors at the stall, although they market their machines at one-fourth the cost of a foreign-made machine and despite the machine offering the same quality finish.
He shares proudly that they supplied two decatizing machines and are the only India-based technology supplier for the Rs. 1,000-crore expansion plan of the Mumbai-based Mandhana Industries, while all the rest of the technologies have been supplied by foreign companies.
Mandhana preferred their decatizing technology despite the fact that the company has deployed them at the final stage of processing and the fabric goes straight to the market from that stage. Mr. Karkar profusely thanked the promoter Mr. Purshottam Mandhana for placing his trust in Zen Industrial machines.
He is very much optimistic of the Indian textile industry prospects and is of the opinion that it will always grow although it may have its ups and downs. He quotes the term, ‘Roti, Kapda and Makan’, the three most basic human requirements, with Kapda referring to textiles. Those operating in the textile sector will always flourish, and Zen Industrial has never come across any slack period in its 25-year career, he concludes.