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45th Joint Technological conference

Genesis and growth of the Bombay Textile Research Association

The Indian textile industry was booming in the 1940’s and it was the right time to visualise its long term needs for sustained development. The first step was to create a fund and the government of India promulgated the Cotton Textiles Fund Ordinance in 1944 by which a cess was levied on cloth and yarn exported from the country, effective from October 1, 1944 for a period of two years. This was followed by the setting up of the Cotton Textiles Fund Committee to administer the fund.

This Committee deliberated on the technological needs of the industry and, giving due consideration to its size, spread and common nature of products, adopted the co-operative research model. The capital and recurring expenditure was to be shared on 50:50 basis; further contributions from members were exempted from Income Tax. The follow-up led to the establishment of the Bombay Textile Research Association (BTRA).

Over the years, BTRA has undertaken a number of R&D activities aimed at improving quality, conserving resources, enhancing productivity, training of personnel, etc.

The highlights of the work done

Training within industry (TWI)

Efficient supervision is the sine qua non of scientific management and the TWI scheme initiated the training of supervisors. Member mills participated in large number and the synergism was such that many mills started in-house training programmes and expanded their scope.

Standards Engineering and SQC

Equipped with an assortment of machines of different makes and ages, and processing a heterogeneous raw material mix to produce a wide range of products, the individual mills had little means to assess their performance. Standards Engineering initiated this bread-and-butter activity through shopfloor studies on workload, machine assignment, idle time, soft and hard waste, etc, and surveys on productivity. This provided the means for comparison of vital parameters of working to individual mills and was the harbinger for the evolution of industrywide norms in later years.

Training in methods of statistical quality control (SQC) at the technician level helped the monitoring and control of day-to-day variations and the manufacture of goods as per quality specifications.

Technical Consultancy

This down-to-earth service, supported by diagnostic studies, enabled mills to solve many shopfloor problems relating to raw material, settings and speeds, recipes, optimising of process parameters and so on in mechanical and chemical processing. Various items dealt with relate to cotton quality, performance of spinning and weaving machinery, yarn quality, yarn preparation for weaving, defects in cloth, physical properties of yarns and fabrics, sizing, bleaching, dyeing, mercerising, printing and finishing.

Testing Services

Besides conducting physical testing of textiles, BTRA also helped mills set up in-house testing labs. The analytical testing laboratory also played a significant role in assisting the technical consultancy activity. Thus, the much needed technological inputs were made available, albeit in a limited manner, well before the full-fledged facilities were established in the 1960’s.

Augmented scope of R&D and services

R&D activities at BTRA cover applied and basic research, process and product development, new and frontier areas of technology, engineering and microprocessor-based instrumentation, operational studies to improve and standardise mill working, testing and consultancy services, maintenance audit, energy conservation and additional energy sources, communication and training, post graduate research and appropriate technology for the decentralised sector. Assistance to the government and public sector institutions on matters related to technological aspects of the industry is also an integral part of its activities.

BTRA fulfilled the objectives of successive Five Year Plans by undertaking R&D projects in thrust areas and by rendering assistance to the decentralised sector. Consequent to this qualitative change in the needs of the member mills and the opening up of new areas of national priority, the scope of R&D and services has been augmented in a sustained manner from time to time as indicated below:

(i) Nonwovens & Geotextiles

(ii) Textile Engineering

(iii) Instrumentation, Electronics and Microprocessor Applications

(iv) Computer Aided Design

(v) Polymer Research

(vi) Application of Biotechnology

(vii) Energy Conservation and Alternate Energy Sources

(viii) Effluent Management

(ix) Eco Testing

(x) Appropriate Technology and Services to the Decentralised Sector

(xi) Postgraduate Research

(xii) ISO - 900 & TQM.

In recent years the services are further augmented by the introduction of fabric inspection services - backed by fault diagnosis and relevant testing, services in techno-economic viability, valuation of plant/machinery, land and buildings, assistance in achieving environmental standards through ISO 14000; similarly laboratories are assisted for accreditation to ISO 17025 standards and services in microbiology testing of textile goods.

Infrastructural Expansion

Commensurate with the augmented scope of work, appropriate additions to the infrastructure have been made. These are:

• Nonwovens & Geotextiles: Facilities for needle-punched and thermal-bonded products
• Instrumentation & Electronics: Comprehensive facilities for computerised machine design, fabrication of hardware and development of software.
• Computer-Aided Textile Design: Mainframe computer and sophisticated software for woven and printed designs and colour matching.
• Polymer Research: Melt Spinning System and laboratory facilities for:-
• Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC)
• High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)
• Gas Liquid Chromatography (GLC)
• Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA)
• Thermo Mechanical Analysis (TMA)
• Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)
• Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS)
• General: Scanning electron microscopy, effluent analysis, equipment for detection and estimation of traces of hazardous chemicals, etc.

Infrastructural upgradation has been a continuous process, sustained over the years, and is the main avenue to keep abreast with the times.

Testing and technical consultancy services

It is a known fact that the medium and small textile enterprises contribute a major share of textile production in the weaving, knitting, processing and clothing sectors in India. These units lack technological inputs to remain cost competitive. Cost reduction in manufacturing is a basic requirement to remain competitive in the domestic and world market. BTRA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Federation of All India Textile Manufacturers Association (FAITMA) representing medium and small textile enterprises in the country, for providing technical and testing services to their members.

Machinery maintenance audit

In the past, BTRA pioneered the concept of maintenance audit at a time when breakdown maintenance, rather than preventive maintenance, was the normal practice in the textile mills. In 1972, BTRA initiated the ‘Maintenance Audit Programme’ in spinning. The work involved considerable shopfloor work, training of personnel in scientific maintenance practices, devising systems of recording and reporting. Once regularised, the watchdog activity of BTRA continued as ‘Spot Audit’. The gains from the programme were such that an increasing number of mills joined the same and many had to wait in the queue. Responding to suggestions from members, the maintenance programme was extended to weaving machinery and chemical processing machinery. The gains from the maintenance audit go beyond improved operating performance and service life of machinery, spares and accessories, to achievement of better and more uniform quality.

Energy and Engineering Audit

The extension of the ‘audit’ concept to energy and engineering areas was triggered by the oil crisis of the mid-70’s and continued escalation of prices, pushing the cost of utilities to the second position after raw material. Energy audit involves critical examination of the existing equipments, systems in operation, maintenance practices and in-house culture, discussions and exchange of ideas at different levels, and finally recommendations for conservation. BTRA Energy Programme has, in the last two decades and over, helped the mills to achieve, on an average, savings of eight per cent in steam generation, 10 per cent in steam utilisation, six per cent in electrical power and five per cent in compressed air.

Water Conservation

Textile wet processing is a water intensive activity. BTRA undertakes detailed shopfloor studies to explore the areas for water conservation and standardise wet processing conditions. BTRA recommends suitable preventive and corrective measures and provides required technical assistance in implementing the recommendations. After the implementation of the recommendations, BTRA conducts reconciliation studies to indicate and verify the savings achieved.

With the help of BTRA, many textile units have achieved a direct saving of water consumption between 18-55 per cent depending upon the working conditions such as type of product mix, processing conditions, machinery set-up, etc. In addition to direct saving, water conservation measures lead to -

• Reduction in processing cost
• Reduction in waste water treatment cost
• Reduction in thermal energy consumption
• Reduction in electrical energy consumption
• Reduction in pollutants load

Testing Services

BTRA has one of the most modern textile testing laboratories; commensurate with widening scope, equipment status has been continuously upgraded and, whenever necessary, expertise of the testing and supervisory personnel has been strengthened through specialised training within the country or abroad. There is also a strong back-up of expert consultancy in various fields such as spinning, nonwovens, weaving, chemical processing, etc. An exclusive plus point of BTRA’s testing services is the diagnostic ability nurtured by years of variegated experience, a feature that has received accolades at national and international levels. The National Accreditation Board for testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) has given accreditation to BTRA Testing Laboratory as per ISO/IEC guide 25 & EN - 45001 and ISO/IEC 17025 -1999 standards. Testing at BTRA is performed as per various national and international standards viz, BIS, ASTM, BS, ISO, AATCC, EURO, EDANA and INDA. The scope of testing services covers:

• Physical Testing
• Chemical Testing
• Testing of Nonwovens
• Eco-testing
• Effluent Analysis
• Microbiology / Biotechnology
• Special Testing
• Testing of Spares, Components and Accessories
• Fabric Quality Certification

Physical & Chemical Testing

The physical and chemical testing divisions together answer the total testing requirements of the member industry. Wherever the work involves wider tests like miniature/full-scale spinning, evaluation of size recipes, finishes, etc, the respective pilot plants provide the back-up. The facilities are made available to the decentralised sector, handloom and khadi sectors, manufacturers of dyes, chemicals and auxiliaries, exporters, government departments like customs, Port Trust, railways, ONGC and so on. In this area of conformance testing against customer’s specifications, BTRA’s reputation is well-established as it is finetuned to its judicial role, maintaining the highest levels of integrity and confidentiality with respect to the reports issued.

Testing of Nonwovens & Geo-textiles/Technical Textiles

In addition to testing of fibres, yarns and fabrics for physical and chemical properties, BTRA undertakes various types of testing on nonwoven products such as:

* Nonwoven shoe lining

* Single rip test

* Bursting and tensile strength

* CR-after washing of nonwoven high loft padding

* Static charge measurement

* Identification of nonwoven product using FT-IR spectrophotometer, etc.

Also, BTRA is involved in product development of nonwovens for specific applications using its pilot plant for nonwovens. Some of the nonwoven products developed at BTRA include:

* Nonwoven fabrics from Oxipan fibres (equivalent to carbon fibres)

* Needle punched nonwoven using 100 per cent polyester fibre for the specific application of collecting the metals from seawater

* Nursery bags from jute needle punched nonwovens

* Banana/cotton blended needle punched nonwoven fabric

* Nonwoven blankets from polypropylene waste fibres

* Polyester needle punched nonwoven printed blanket

Effluent Analysis

Effluent analysis is undertaken as part of the assistance to the mills in effluent treatment and also as part of consultancy services for water economy.

Special Testing

For conducting special testing such as fabric defects analysis, identification of substrates, evaluation of auxiliaries, etc, BTRA has numerous modern testing equipments such as -

* Scanning electron microscope [for studying surface characteristics of fibre, yarn and fabric, evaluating ring and spinneret parameters, etc.]

* X-ray diffractometer [identification of various polymeric forms of fibres, measurement of degree of crystallinity and orientation, characterisation of rayons, degree of mercerisation of cotton, etc.,]

* Static honestometer [for measuring static charge/HLF decay time of fibres, yarns, fabrics and nonwovens and studying the performance of antistatic agents]

* Thermo Mechanical Analyser (TMA) [for measuring glass transition temperature, co-efficient of thermal expansion, etc.,]

* Thermo Gravimetric Analyser (TGA) [for measuring thermal stability, composition of plastic, polymer identification, flame retardant treatment, etc.,]

* Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) [for measuring glass transition temperature, melting point, crystallisation time and temperature, percent crystallinity, purity, etc.,]

* UV-VIS Spectrophotometer [for formaldehyde estimation, colorimetry, etc.,] * Rheometers [for rheology studies of different gums, binders and synthetic thickeners]

* Testing Flame Retardancy (FR) of treated substrate [as per BS, AST, AATCC, IS, ISO, FMVSS, DAEWOO, JASO test methods], etc.Eco-testing

Buyer countries demand eco-friendly textiles that are safe to use. BTRA is fully equipped to carry out the various eco tests, and to analyse the ppm levels of various chemicals such as banned amines, formaldehyde, harmful and heavy metals, pentachlorophenol, pesticides, etc.Microbiology/Biotechnology

Recently, BTRA added one more field of activity viz. Microbiology/biotechnology applicable to textiles and other related areas under its wing. BTRA is setting up a new laboratory for microbiology/biotechnology. BTRA undertakes the following tests related to textiles at present:

* Assessment of antibacterial activity of textile (qualitative) - To assess activity of diffusable antimicrobial agent

* Assessment of antibacterial activity of textile (quantitative) - Quantitative evaluation of anti-bacterial finish

* Assessment of antifungal activity of textile materials (soil burial) - To determine the susceptibility of textile materials to mildew and rot.

* Agar plate using aspergillum niger - To evaluate the efficacy of fungicides on textile materials.

* Assessment of antimicrobial activity of carpets (qualitative) - To assess qualitative antibacterial activity.

* Assessment of antimicrobial activity of carpets (quantitative) - To assess quantitative antibacterial activity.

* Assessment of antifungal activity of carpets - To assess qualitative antifungal activity

* Resistance of textiles to insects - To evaluate resistance of textiles that contain wool or fibres to carpet beetles/termites

* Bacteriological analysis of various water samples

Shade Matching

BTRA offers shade matching services i.e. it finds out most economical colour recipe for a given shade. It has Macbeth colour eye 7000 spectrophotometer for this purpose.

Computer Aided Designing (CAD)

BTRA offers designing services such as dobby, jacquard and printed designs. It has three CAD centres at Mumbai, Ichalkaranji and Solapur. With the help of CAD facility, the following are undertaken by BTRA:

* Fast and easy creation/modification of design

* Visualisation of multiple colour combinations on the screen.

* Flat colour separation as well as half tone separations for printed designs.

* Graphical output for woven designs.

* Automatic card punching for woven designs.

* Printing of colour combinations on the paper or printing of positives on polyester film.

* Preparation of coloured fabric samples for a particular design with state-of-art fabric printer using inks, which are fast to washing and light.Testing of spares, components & accessories

This unique facility was set up because of the awareness that non-standard spares can do incalculable harm to the attenuation processes in spinning and adversely affect variability of products and even the useful life of machinery. For this purpose, apart from routine equipments like hardness testers, profile projectors, gauges, etc, BTRA designed a series of testing instruments for estimation of traveller hardness, gear runout, top roller pressure measurement, etc, and set up a model laboratory. The services were highly appreciated by the mills and, under BTRA’s advice, some of them have set up their own labs.

Certification Services

ISO 9000 Certification

BTRA provides expertise to textile units in getting ISO 9000 certification for quality management. The areas include:

* Conducting awareness programmes for the staff

* Preparation of manuals/procedures/work instructions, etc.

* Reviewing/auditing of all departments

* Suggest corrective measures to streamline the quality system

* Providing guidelines to conduct internal audits

* Assisting units for transition to ISO 9001:2000.

The benefits of implementation of ISO: 9000 quality system are viz, streamlining of work procedures, reduction in rejects/rework, establishing systems that build quality, continual improvement in quality, etc.

Development of CD-ROM on Total Quality Management (TQM)

BTRA has developed an interactive CD-ROM on Total Quality Management for the textile industry. This CD is useful to the textile mills to explore improvement opportunities at their workplace and can be used as a quick reference tool on TQM concepts. It contains the following information:

* Introduction to TQM

* How TQM concepts are Indian?

* PDCA simplified

* Range of concepts explained

* ISO: 9000:2000

* Total Productive Maintenance

* 5-S

* Quality Control Tools

* Benchmarking

* Cost of Quality

* BPR / ERP

* Kaizen

* Management Tools

* Workplace examples and case studies

* Industry snaps and process videos

* Roadmaps followed by some successful companies

* Basic statistics lessons

* Guidelines for TQM implementation 4.3.2 ISO 14000 CertificationISO 14000 Certification

BTRA provides expertise to textile units in getting ISO 14000 certification for environmental management. The areas include:

* Preparation of environment review

* Documentation

* Implementation of environment management system

* Internal audits

* Guidance to certification.

As a backup support, BTRA can draw the expertise of its technical team to advise on energy, water conservation and maintenance of machinery as well as use of its testing facilities such as eco-testing, effluent analysis, etc.

The benefits of implementation of ISO: 14000 Environment Management System are viz, streamlining of environmental procedures, establishing systems for managing environmental impact, improved image of the company with the customers and reduction in energy costs through continual improvement in energy conservation and safe work practices.

Fabric Quality Certification

BTRA assists fabric exporters to export quality cloth. BTRA undertakes inspection of finished fabrics that are ready for delivery at the site level as well as test the fabrics for their physical and chemical properties for compliance with the buyers’ requirements. Moreover, it offers backup services such as diagnosis and rectification of fabric faults and testing facilities. In short, this activity covers the following:

* Fabric Inspection and Certification backed by total technical support for diagnosis and correction of faults as well as relevant testing

* Product Specification and Properties Certification

* Right Quality Fabric Sourcing / Quality AssuranceAlso, contributions of BTRA through its researches, investigations and surveys have nevertheless been quite significant. BTRA conducted various types of inter-firm comparison surveys for helping mills to benchmark their operational and financial performance.

* Survey on yarn quality

* Survey on fabric quality

* Survey of labour and machine productivity in spinning.

* Survey on spinning cost.

* Survey on weaving productivity and costs.

* Survey on shuttleless looms productivity.

* Survey on productivity and costs in chemical processing.

* Survey on fabric value loss.

* Survey of labour, production and materials consumption in folding and baling.

* Survey of spinning stores consumption.

* Survey of weaving stores consumption

* Interfirm comparison of financial performance.

R & D in frontier areas

The undercurrent of BTRA’s R&D efforts was to upgrade technology and to enter hi-tech areas for innovative exploitation not only for improvement of productivity and quality but also for diversification of activities to new areas of textile manufacture such as industrial textiles, nonwovens, geotextiles, etc.

Antistats and Spin Finishes

BTRA has developed effective antistatic finishes for controlling problems of roller lapping, cylinder loading at card due to static charge development while processing synthetic fibres in the mills. It aims to develop indigenous spin finishes, which are closely guarded secrets of a few manufacturers abroad in the next phase.

Indigenous Flame-Retardant (Fr) Finishes

FR finishing of textiles is limited to certain special requirements of defence services and a small proportion of exports, even though over one lakh casualties from burns are reported in India every year with a death toll of around 10,000. This is partly because of our dependence on imported FR chemicals. BTRA has developed the full range of indigenous FR chemicals and finishing technology adaptable to existing conventional machinery and suitable for all types of textiles viz, cotton, polyester/cotton, acrylic fibre and blends. BTRA has transferred FR technology for manufacture of flame-retardant cum waterproof cum rotproof flax awning fabric for the Navy to a member mill.

Alternate Source of Energy

A 12 tonne plant to generate biogas from willow dust has been designed and commissioned jointly with NTC (South Maharashtra) at one of its units to supply gas for fabric singeing, laboratory, workers’ canteen, etc. BTRA has also developed, jointly with an upcountry mill, a technique for economical use of bagasse (from sugar industry) as boiler fuel in place of coal.

Colouration Of Textiles

Developments in this area include:

(i) Special Penetrant for Discharge/Resist Printing on Dyed Polyester

(ii) A novel catalyst system for single-stage polyester/cotton dyeing and printing, using disperse and reactive dyes, which saves considerable energy, time and labour.

Foam Technology

The novel ‘foam concept’ replaces the medium of water with air in chemical recipes and saves energy for drying. BTRA Foam Printing Process released to the industry in 1981 is a world breakthrough; the knowhow for the foam printing has been licensed and technology implemented in several mills. One of the greatest savings is the total elimination of kerosene in pigment printing.