Amritsar, India, the land of the Golden Temple, is historically significant. It has been a textile
hub in the past, and is particularly famous for shawls and blankets that are exported worldwide.
Many of the major textile mills were first established in Amritsar. But the city was a victim of
insurgencies and terrorist activities in the 1970s and ’80s, and these problems dealt a deathblow
to local industries. As a result, industry moved out, slowing down overall development.
Today, the scenario is fast changing. Local entrepreneurs are determined to bring the city
back to its golden days. One such group that is in the field of manufacturing and exporting
blankets, shawls, stoles and scarves has done backward integration and has set up its own dyeing
unit.
Shree Balaji Yarns and Textile (SBYT) is a greenfield facility established in 2012. Construction
of the facility began in 2010, and commercial production started in August 2012. SBYT is run by two
young entrepreneurs — Managing Directors Manish Mehra and Hitesh Khosla — who have established a
world-class manufacturing facility for yarn dyeing. The company has a professional team headed by
Mohinder Attiri, who has more than 20 years of experience in the textile industry, particularly in
dyeing and processing.
An Allwin High Temperature Package Dyeing Machine is among the Fong’s equipment installed at
SBYT.
SBYT’s promoters have been in the textile industry for more than 40 years. They were
sourcing dyed yarn from the market, but to cater to their needs and to other customers, they
group-integrated backwards and established a state-of-the-art yarn-dyeing plant. The company also
caters to the dyed yarn requirement of companies in Amritsar that are making similar products such
as shawls, stoles, scarves, and blankets. Apart from the Amritsar market, SBYT also caters to
customers in Ludhiana for the woolen and cotton knitwear, and hosiery segments.
A Modern Facility
SBYT’s modern yarn-dyeing facility has the capacity to process 5,000 kilograms (kg) of yarn
per day. “We are planning to double the capacity in the next few months,” Mehra said.
SBYT has the necessary infrastructure for yarn dyeing including preparatory winding machines
for soft packaging, radio-frequency dryers and a cone-winding machine used after the dyeing
process. The company has established a sophisticated testing laboratory with automated
color-management solutions. The heart of the manufacturing unit is the dyeing unit, for which SBYT
has installed the new-generation Allwin and Labwin series of machines from Hong Kong-based Fong’s
National Engineering Co. Ltd. The company has installed 12 machines with varying capacities
starting at 3 kg, which are used for sampling, up to 500 kg. “In the next phase, we will set up
higher-capacity 800- and 1,000-kg dyeing machines as we have increasing requirements from our
customers,” Khosla said.
Top to bottom: Mohinder Attiri, head of operations; and Manish Mehra, and Hitesh Khosla,
managing directors, SBYT
SBYT has the capacity to dye almost any type of substrate and filaments. The company can dye
yarn counts from 10 Nm to 120 Nm, and from 2x20s to 1 to 210 Nm on substrates like polyester,
cotton, wool, silk, polyester/wool, polyester/viscose polyester/cotton, modal, viscose and linen.
The company sources basic yarn such as silk and cashmere from China and from the domestic market.
Some of SBYT’s major customers include Ramson Exports, Piyush Overseas, Startlight Hosiery
Works, Southern Knitwear and Shri Ganesh Enterprises, among other customers. SBYT’s customers are
leading exporters of high-quality scarves, stoles, and shawls to global brands such as GAP,
Debenhams, Esprit and many other global retail brands. Hence, the quality of dyed yarn must be
top-notch, with no compromise on quality.
“We want to set up an eco-friendly plant adhering to all the latest environmental protection
norms,” said Mehra. “Hence, before setting up the unit, we evaluated many machines and finally
decided to go with Fong’s. They assured us the best quality, and today, we are very satisfied with
the performance of the machines and the output. Their transparent approach and attitude impressed
us a lot. We are proud to have set up a unit that strictly conforms to the environmental norms. We
are very happy with Fong’s, and even for our next round of capacity expansion, we will go with
them.”
Out of the 12 Fong’s machines installed, the company has one machine with 500-kg capacity,
two 300-kg-capacity machines, one 200-kg-capacity machine, three 100-kg-capacity machines, one
62-kg-capacity machine, one 52-kg-capacity machine and two Labwin models for sampling — one with
10-kg capacity and one with 3-kg capacity.
The Allwin High Temperature Package Dyeing machine offers a liquor ratio as low as 1:4 with
its integrated design of REV-pump, heat exchanger and the patented flow-reversing system. The newly
designed integrated circulating system results in space savings of approximately 30 percent when
compared to conventional machine arrangements.
The versatile machine is suitable for various types of fibers including natural and man-made
fibers and their blends, such as 100-percent cotton, polyester, polyester/cotton, acrylic, nylon,
wool and ramie/cotton. Different forms of yarns may be dyed, such as packages, cheeses, cones,
hanks and loose fiber. Capacity ranges from 28 kg to 9,129 kg.
According to tests conducted by Fong’s, Allwin dyeing machines shorten the total processing
time for cotton yarn down to 276 minutes, reducing both electrical and water consumption by more
than 40 percent and chemical costs by 19 percent compared with conventional machines. The ILC
Intelligent Levelling Control System monitors the flow through the package from outside-in to
inside-out and vice versa. The ILC improves the leveling of color throughout the whole package,
thereby reducing yarn loss and increasing reproducibility from batch to batch. The performances of
these features reduce total production cost by 30 percent.
July/August/September 2013