Textile manufacturers in Coimbatore and Tirupur having understood that regulating compressed air, which is an essential input for all modern textile machines can help conserve air, and consequently save energy. They have turned their focus to air now, trying to conserve its flow from compressors in their spinning and weaving machines to plug leakages and save energy.

Prabhu Damodharan, secretary of entrepreneur forum Indian Texpreneurs Federation said that they have implemented robust air monitoring systems in many mills now. The idea is to expose the advantages to more mills and create a model for effective air-monitoring and corrective action. Modern textile machines are operated by pneumatic systems, which use gas or compressed air for key processes.

In weaving machines of this day, compressed air ejected from fine nozzles moves weaved threads from one end of the machine to another, a process that was done manually earlier. Compressed air needs to be clean, dry and devoid of impurities like oil or moisture, both capable of impacting performance of the machine. It could lead to increased number of defective garments, higher power consumption or even a sudden breakdown, risking higher capital costs for entrepreneurs.

In Tamil Nadu’s textile belt, spinners in a large portion belong in the SMEs category. For an average mill of capacity 25,000 spindles, the energy savings through air monitoring stand at 750 units every day which means an annual savings of Rs 200 crore is estimated for the state’s spinning industry.