The Indian Card clothing company which manufactures card clothing and card room accessories for all types of carding machines is all set to launch ‘ProLyf Wire Series’. The 70-year-old organization having offices across the Globe calls it a remarkable solution ever in the history of card clothing and believes it to be a game changer.
Speaking to Textile Value Chain, Prasad Mahale, Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, The Indian Card Clothing Company (ICC) says, this solution has come after listening to the concerns of various spinning mills across India and abroad. “The key challenge faced by many of the spinning mill across the world is lack of quality consistency throughout the useful life of card clothing. Typically, the life of card clothing for an Indian wire life is x, and the maximum useful life of wires from German or Swiss is 1.2x would be 1.5x respectively. However with the ‘ProLyf Wire series, ICC can assure you that the life will be up to 2x”, he asserts.
The new solution is conceived to be a dream project and we are planning to launch the ProLyf series wires at ITMA event in Barcelona. “We have not developed these wires overnight. For more than two years, we visited various spinning mills, we had captured the Voice Of Customer( VOC) and formed a cross functional team. We had constituted a team, which comprised professionals from both industries and academics. We had industry leaders along with renowned professors and experts from IITs and profound professionals from allied industries and amalgamation of thought process from diverse backgrounds. “On a pilot test basis of ProLyf series, ICC had shortlisted 20 to 25 mills manufacturing very coarse to fine count yarn, across length & breadth of the India market, and so far the industry feedback on ProLyf Series has been fantastic”.
“Strategic trials on ProLyf Series have also been conducted at various key overseas quality conscious market like Japan, Indonesia, Turkey, Bangladesh and the feedback is encouraging. The performance of these strategic trials have been rigorously monitored.” Mr. Mahale added. He also said that based on the feedback from spinning mills owner’s, a scientific process was followed to translate the ground level feedback to customer requirements , which led to iterations of product refinement and the final version of ProLyf Series was conceived.
Advantages
Speaking on the advantages of the product Mahale said that the “Downtime will get optimized. With the help of ProLyf Series, increase in the production rate can be enhanced by 10%, superior yarn quality and superior IPI throughout product lifecycle can be witnessed. Not to miss, higher neps remover efficiency, prolonged life, consistence in quality throughout the life, waste optimization and last but not the least efficient removal of trash impurities and short fibres.” It is also believed that the new solution will also observe the static charge and will not pass it on to the fibre. “Surface is clean and smooth, thereby lesser fiction which translates to minimal fibre damage leading to reduction in waste. Thus, the total cost-per-KG can be reduced up to 10% and you can increase production by 10%. And all together we will also reduce the consumption of power”.
Industry challenges
Speaking on the overall industry challenges, he said that card clothing is a precision light engineering industry; the challenge is to get the raw material also. “It requires a grade of steel which is not prevalent in India. Even globally, there are limited steel manufacturers who can match up to the quality standards. Thus we are dependent on 100% import of refined raw material”. Mahale also raises concerns of the limited numbers in the organized card clothing-manufacturing segment. “Globally there are not more than seven established players in the industry. This makes the card clothing industry as a whole, challenging industry in terms of getting right resources and man power.” Mr. Mahale avers that unlike the other technology industries there is no ready-made talent pool available”. According to him, a card-clothing manufacturer needs to invest at least 5 to 7 years to train engineers to manufacture quality product & hone the techno commercial skills of marketing professionals to hit the market locally and globally.
Mr. Mahale who is in touch with renowned steel manufacturers and government bodies to ensure that Indian card clothing industry gets the support it needs. “It is not simple for anyone to enter the business and he/she could be productive. As Market possess high entry and exit barriers Mr. Mahale concluded.
