Technical textile cos to get quality push in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: Technical textiles will soon get an organised push with industries getting together to develop standards for medical textiles. The move will help textile companies in meeting demands of the technical textiles sector which is still in a nascent stage.

Ahmedabad Textile Industry’s Research Association (ATIRA) is working to develop quality standard for the medical textiles. ATIRA will do R&D at yarn and fabric level. As of now, there is no such standard available for technical textiles.

Medical textiles is one of the major areas within technical textiles. Gujarat government is also focusing on this sector in a big way. It can be divided into textiles for protective and healthcare textiles like surgeons’ wear, operating drapes and staff uniforms; external devices such as bandages, pressure garments, prosthetic socks; implantable materials like vascular grafts, artificial ligaments; hygiene products like nappies, sanitary towels and extracorporeal devices like artificial liver, artificial kidney, artificial lung etc.

Currently, the technical textile units in Gujarat are producing very few products in protective healthcare and external devices. “Technical textile is coming up in a big way in the state and it is very important that we should have quality standards, like BIS, to certify the quality of the product produced by these units. Standards will be on the lines of international ones,” says ATIRA’s principal scientific officer RM Sankar.

As per the status study on technical textile industry in Gujarat conducted by Gujarat Industrial and Technical Consultancy Organisation (GITCO), the technical textile industry of Gujarat has around 8,555 units having a turnover of Rs 3,241 crore and presence in all 12 sectors. However, largest product variety is found in Indutech, Hometech, Packtech and Meditech.

Since, healthcare industry in the state is poised to grow multifold, the government has started focusing more on this sector. Fresh investments to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore are in the pipeline for setting up new hospitals in the state apart from Rs 2,000 crore investments that were done during Vibrant Gujarat summit.

Bigwigs such as Apollo Tyres, Bombay Hospital Trust, Clinical Islet Transplant Group, Fortis Healthcare and Uniphos-Rotteryy Vapi Medical & Education Trust will set up hospitals in the state. These hospitals will require medical textiles in a big way. The major requirement of the textile materials is the bio-receptivity and bio-compatibility at the application site in human being.

“As lot of investment is coming in the healthcare industry in the state, the textile players are being encouraged to venture into this sector,” says Industrial Extension Bureaus’ (iNDEXT-b) GM (technology and project), Dr Chandan Chaterjee.