Elgi Electric, with over three decades of experience, has been providing high quality, performance-driven engineering solutions for the textile industry. The company has set high benchmarks in OHTCs and YCS, apart from offering other solutions like metal & spark diversion systems and bobbin transportation systems. The company is market leader in most of the products that it offers to the market.
Elgi Electric has witnessed a healthy growth rate of 20 per cent year on year despite such tough conditions in the textile industry in the last few years, thanks to the company’s focus on developing products in line with market requirements. The major growth areas for the company in recent times have been in OHTCs and bobbin transportation systems.
The spinning industry is moving towards faster, longer and more efficient. Long ring frames have become the order of the day, and with the addition of auto doffing systems and link coners the length of machines is increasing. Earlier, the length of a spinning machine with 1,200 spindles would be 48 metres. Now with the new ring frames launched by spinning machinery manufacturers, the length, including the link coner can run upto 90 metres.
A machine of this length requires fast, powerful and efficient overhead blowers. It takes normally three-four minutes for an overhead blower to move from one end to the other, only then the cleaning frequency will be good. Hence for a 90 metre length speed frame, the overhead blower has to move at a speed of 22 metres per minute. This is where Elgi Electric has launched the NUGEN-XL, which is a more powerful and efficient overhead blower fitted with heavy duty drive motors, gears and fans to increase suction and blowing. This has been a big success for the company and has helped garner significant marketshare.
Mr. N. Ravichandran, Director – Operations, Elgi Electric, says: “Elgi Electric has been on the forefront of innovation as we work closely with most of the Indian and global OEMs. Expecting the market demand for more powerful and efficient OHTCs, we have developed these products way back in 2008 when the first few long speed frames were introduced in the market. We work alongside the machinery manufacturers to come up with solutions which suit the new machines launched in the market”.
Elgi Electric has been manufacturing nearly 2,000 OHTCs every year, out of which nearly 300 OHTCs are sold in the export market like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Indonesia.
Bobbin transport system
Another successful product for the company has been bobbin transport system (BTS). Mr. Ravichandran says: “We are the only company in India to manufacture bobbin transport system for auto doffing speed frames”. At the LMW stall in India-ITME, the bobbin transportation system which was on display was provided by Elgi Electric. This was developed in a record time of 45 days, thanks to the company’s in house R&D. The Railings & Trains are manufactured using high quality aluminium alloy profiles which ensure better quality and longer life”.
Elgi Electric has bagged five major projects recently for BTS, including two major projects at Sri Venkata Siva Parvathi Spinning Mills and Suryalatha for 50,000 spindles and another for 36,000 spindles each.
Yarn conditioning systems
The difference between conventional yarn and Elgi Profix conditioned yarn is rather obvious. Conditioned yarn gives you advantages that contribute to enhance production efficiency both at the knitting and weaving stages. Made possible by significant increase in single yarn elongation, yarn strength, better hairiness value and constant coefficient friction. Elgi Profix yarn condition system is defined to deliver maximum value and incorporate world class standards and is ideal for treating all kinds of yarn.
Elgi Electric has been providing yarn conditioning plants with design from Welker of Germany. The YCS plant comes with energy saver unit which offers power saving of nearly 15-20 per cent. Since steam is retained in the system it saves power and time and also helps increase productivity by 15-20 per cent. The company sells 6-7 YCS plants every month and has an order book for another 30 machines. The company has installed over 400 such plants all over the world.
Argus fire control systems
Elgi Electric is the partner for Argus fire control in India. Argus manufactures a broad range of fire suppressing system components for all types of textile production processes threatened by fire hazards or metal contaminants. Through the use of a patented infrared detector, a spark or glowing ember is detected instantaneously shutting down production equipment and closing dampers to halt the spread of fire and alerting production personnel.
Experience over the years has identified a broad range of hazards in spinning mills. These include “hot bales” received from cotton gins, stones in cotton bales, stray metal and wire in bales, loose metal from the production process itself, friction and choke-up, and even electrical short circuits in production equipment.
Argus is the global leader in fire control systems for textile industry and Elgi has been its trusted partner in the Indian market for many years now.
Mills in India are increasingly going for such fire control systems. Apart from metal diverters, spark detectors and diverters, Argus has recently launched even smoke detectors to be installed in cotton storage godowns and dry chemical spark quenching system for pre-filter and compactors. The company has already sold nearly seven dry chemical systems in major mills across India. This will be another focus area for Elgi in the future.
Elgi Electric has also been continuously expanding its infrastructure to cater to the growing market demands. The company has added a new facility for manufacture of BTS and other new products. The company employs over 250 people in the manufacturing side and another 35 service engineers for providing customer support service. This is apart from the service team of agents across India.
Elgi Electric has a strong network of agents across India for all its products, Voltas is representing Elgi all over India in addition to other agents. The company has been working with most of these agents for nearly 30 years. This is a big asset for the company, says Mr. Ravichandran.
Elgi Electric has been clocking a growth rate of 15-20 per cent over the last few years. The company expects to close this year with a turnover of Rs. 60 crores.