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ATIRA unveils Incubation Centre for technical textiles

11 May '12
4 min read

Ahmedabad Textile Industry's Research Association (ATIRA) launched an Incubation Centre for Technical Textiles at its existing premises in Ahmedabad.

The Incubation Centre will encompass state - of - the - art machineries from Germany and Switzerland to develop various high performance fabrics prepared from composite materials like Carbon, Glass, Aramid yarns and will be the first of its kind to be launched in India.

These light weight fabrics are indispensable in sectors like Aerospace, Marine, Defence, Railways, Auto, Civil etc which are of high national importance.

The Incubation Centre was set up at an investment of Rs. 188.2 million and is mainly financed by the Government of Gujarat and rest coming from ATIRA and the industries of the State.

This, one-of-its-kind facility, will facilitate the industrialists and the entrepreneurs of Gujarat to augment their capability and develop value-added products through these advanced technology machines, which at present are being imported from abroad.

The amenities at the Incubation Centre can be used to develop products and conduct techno-economic viability studies to avoid investing huge capital in product development and conducting trials.

Such facility would reduce the initial capital cost, cost of product development as well as the lead time for entrepreneurs, who wish to foray in to production of technical textile products.

It will also create an opportunity to develop new cost effective performs in association with knowledge partners like ICT Fraunhofer, & Faserinstitut, Bremen from Germany.

Speaking on this occasion, Shri Saurabhbhai Patel, Minister of State for Industry, said, “It is a great pleasure to be associated with such an esteemed project which will help the textile industry to expand its product portfolio thereby increasing the export potential of such highly sophisticated value add products.

“This unique initiative will definitely benefit small, medium and large textile industries for product development and innovation. It will also support industries to consolidate their position in the fast growing and high potential field of technical textiles”.

Mr. Sanjay Lalbhai, Chairman of the Council of Administration at ATIRA said, “ATIRA has initiated the process to realign its activities with advanced technology which will aim at effectively serving the needs of small, medium and large industries by offering them high quality reliable services for testing, certification, calibration and support for product development through collaborative, cooperative, sponsored and grant-in-aid R&D.

"With the launch of this Incubation Center, we look forward to embark on the new emerging fields of Technical Textiles putting the nation on the global map."

Some of the key machineries at the incubation centre will include :
1) Belt Weaving Machine: The belt weaving machine will assist in the production of safety seat belts which are used in aircrafts, sectors which involves lifting heavy weights like container lifting etc
2) Rigid Rapier 340cm: The rigid rapier 340cm machine will assist in the production of fabrics used on the solar panel, airbag fabrics, industrial filter fabrics, insulating fabrics, meshed fabric for carpet backing
3) Rigid Rapier 430cm: The rigid rapier 430cm machine will assists in the production of geo fabrics, tensile structure, green house fabric and agro textile
4) Rope Weaving: The rope weaving machine will assist in the production of fabrics used for ropes used in climbing, in the creation of rope bridges, automotive sector, cycles etc
5) Rigid Rapier Loom 190cm: The rigid rapier loom 190cm machine will assist in the production of woven fabrics for Automotive Composites

On display was also a dummy model of a car completely made from carbon fibre, which has properties such as high stiffness, high tensile strength, low weight, high chemical resistance, high temperature tolerance, low thermal expansion and a very high strength to weight ratio.

Technical Textile News Desk - India

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