SprintOn's Energy Efficiency Surpasses Industry Standards

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SprintOn's Energy Efficiency Surpasses Industry Standards

Stenter machines are crucial to the textile business. Sanjay Kowarkar Vice President - Sales & Marketing, InspirOn Engineering Pvt Ltd spoke to Textile Excellence about the unique selling proposition of stenter machines made by his company...

What was new from InspirOn during India ITME 2016?

InspirOn has displayed its new generation energy efficient Sprinton stenter machine. Earlier we used technology developed by Monforts of Germany. We had a technology transfer agreement with that company. However, there was some change in Monforts' shareholding pattern as well business dynamics. So, we decided to have our own technology.

Do you have any plans for the export market?

In fact the main aim behind developing this technology used in the Sprinton stenter machine was to cater to the export market. We launched this technology in November 2015 at ITMA. Initially, we supplied the prototype of this machine to Ankur Textiles, which is an Arvind group company. We wanted to do better than what German technology could offer because we strongly believe that Indians have good engineering as well as intellectual skills. So, when we designed our machine, we found that it is 15% more efficient than German technology. In fact, this was already proved at the Ankur Textiles factory where we installed this machine first. This stenter machine has been already working for more than two years. However, we wanted to make sure that whatever design we have gives consistent performance.

Has your technology been verified or certified by any independent authority?

Last week, we invited the faculty of the Dattajirao Kadam Technology Institute at Ichalkaranji to assess the performance of our machine. The idea was to get an independent third party to assess our machine. They have certified that our machine is 15% more efficient than existing ones. We have also received a certification from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) which is a government body and assesses research and development (R&D) capabilities.

They certify whether an R&D centre is compliant with stringent requirements and conditions specified by them. In our case, we have fulfilled all their conditions.

Could you please tell us about your R&D capabilities and commercialising it through your products?

We have a modern R&D facility with high calibre professionals and approved by DSIR as mentioned above. We also take support of foreign scientist on case to case basis where such need arises. In fact, during the development of our heat recovery unit, we have taken technology support from two very senior German technocrats. We used this technology to manufacture our heat recovery units and supplied them to our Indian customers like Vardhman, Raymond, Welspun, as well as customers in Southern India. We have also received an order from Mafatlal. Our heat recovery systems are popular because of the need to save energy.

Even this machine which we have displayed now called the Montex 15000 stenter is popular because of its improved efficiency without increasing power consumption. What we have improved the machine's efficiency but maintained the power consumption as it is. I think nobody will be able to match the efficiency which our machine offers.

How has been the response to your products during ITME?

We have received good quality visitors as well as enquiries, especially during the last two days, from both India as well as overseas. Customers have been very specific. They know about Indian technology capabilities. They know what Indian machinery manufacturers can offer.

What about after sales support?

They also know the kind of service support which we can offer because the machines which we have designed can also be serviced sitting right here in India itself. So, if I am supplying a machine to somewhere in Africa, I could offer servicing sitting right here because we have built such feature into our machines. We did this because offering service support is an important part of our business.

How versatile are your machines?

Our machines are extremely versatile. Our machines can handle the lightest fabric of say of 30 grams. Our machines can handle silk or pashmina shawls and can also handle technical textiles or towels which would normally weigh about two kilograms a metre. Our machine design is very sturdy. The unique selling proposition is in the machine's chain design and the chamber design which are the heart of stenter machine.

What are your future plans?

We intend to improve on our existing strengths. So far, we have developed machines which are 15% more efficient. So, now we are working at how we can add more features to it since industry requirements keep changing. Technical textiles are a growing area and we want our machines to be able to handle it better. We intend to work on certain variants of our machine so that it can handle technical textiles much better. At the moment, we have Motex 15000 for the Indian market and Sprinton is a more high-end machine for the export market.

Which are the overseas markets to which you have exported Sprinton?

In fact, we have already booked two orders from Turkey, but because of the political situation prevailing there, we could not pursue these further. We are looking at Bangladesh, Vietnam, Ethiopia, USA, Canada as well as Uzbekistan.