Tirupur, an industrial city and region in South India, is one of the country’s most important textile centres. Cotton knitwear is mainly manufactured in this area, and exports in this category are almost without exception made in Tirupur. “Many of our Indian customers are from this area, from contract knitters to full-scale businesses,” says Timo Schramm, regional sales manager for India at Mayer & Cie. (MCT).
The Knittech trade fair is held in Tirupur every other year. The focus of this event is on knitting machines, as indicated by the name and location. Mayer & Cie. is regularly represented at this industry event, as are most leading manufacturers. MCT’s regional sales manager Schramm counted 14 international manufacturers of circular knitting machines at this year’s Knittech, held during February 10-13.
Mayer & Cie. had two machines on show in Tirupur: an MBF 3.2 and a D4 2.2 HPI, each with a 30-inch diameter. Both machines were on display at the stand of MCT’s Indian representative Batliboi and are highly suitable for processing cotton, the raw material mainly used in the region. The MBF 3.2 works with a unique technology to process natural and synthetic fibres into high-quality three-thread fleece knitwear. “In recent years the demand for machines to produce this kind of knitwear has greatly increased,” Schramm says. “That was why we showcased our specialist in this area.”
The D4 2.2 HPI, the second Mayer & Cie. machine exhibited in Tirupur, is an interlock machine, the most productive in the world. It has a system density of 4.4 per inch, or 132 systems on 30 inches. It runs at 34 rpm, has been in the Mayer portfolio since the 2015 ITMA and is an international bestseller.
At Knittech alone Mayer & Cie. again sold nearly ten of these machines. “With the D4 2.2 HPI we can hold our own very well against Asian manufacturers,” says sales manager Schramm. “The machine is enormously productive, especially in processing cotton.”
The Mayer-Batliboi team also clinched a large number of sales contracts for the S4 3.2 and was thus able to go home with an order book that was by and large well filled.
Timo Schramm’s conclusion is correspondingly positive, albeit with one downside: “Knittech is an important trade fair for us. It has a fixed place in our trade fair calendar and in that of our customers. It is all the more regrettable that the framework conditions have for years failed to do justice to the event’s importance. This year, as on previous occasions, the organisers received many complaints.”
Well-attended MDS training course in India
Batliboi, the Indian representative of Mayer & Cie., organised an MDS 1 training course in Delhi on January 30 and 31. Mayer Design Software (MDS 1) is software for jacquard machines that makes it possible to program different patterns. It functions for a wide range of machine types from Mayer & Cie. India, traditionally a country of textiles, is experiencing continual growth in the high-quality mattress segment. This is why the application of MDS 1 for mattress machines like OVJA 1.6 E, OVJA 1.6 EM, OVJA 1.6 EM HS, OVJA 1.6 EMS, OVJA 2.4 E and OVJA 1.6 EE took centre-stage in this course.
Technicians from Batliboi and customers who have already been working with machines from Mayer & Cie. for some time attended the course. In total, there were about 20 participants. Most of them came from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Tirupur and Ludhiana. Oliver Bühler, an application technician at Mayer & Cie., and responsible for international MDS 1 training courses, emphasizes the in-depth knowledge demonstrated by the participants. “We always encounter very discerning customers in India. Their questions are very detailed.” He is also quite satisfied with the preparation of the course. “Batliboi’s organisation was great. Everything worked wonderfully.”
At the end of April, the next in-house course will take place at Mayer & Cie. in Albstadt, Germany. Of the approximately six to eight courses that Mayer & Cie. offers annually, three or four are conducted in-house. An additional two or three are held at international representative offices. “The greatest demand is for on-site training. Participants’ travel expenses are much lower for them than for trainings at Mayer & Cie. headquarters. So more people can participate in an event”, says Oliver Bühler.