Darshan Mehta
Owner
Infinium Polychem
Tell us about your journey in textile chemicals.
My journey kicked off with education in organic chemistry. I have spent more than two- and-a-half decades in speciality products used by industries including textile, paper, food, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and others. Our focus is on speciality and performance chemicals in textiles where we collectively understand the needs and wants of customers and convert that into a product and offer better service.
What are the latest technological innovations in green chemicals?
There is an increase in the number of textile companies demanding green chemicals, specifically those companies exporting to European Union nations. Other countries have also begun asking for green chemicals. Environmental norms have become more stringent in India. For example, there is rising demand for polyvinyl alcohol. Demand for enzymatic bio-polishing and enzymatic scouring has also increased. We have developed better blends of polyacrylate that are also environment friendly as it reduces consumption of synthetic binders, ultimately reducing the load on effluent plants.
Tell us about the latest innovations in textile sizing and textile enzyme products.
More companies are opting for compact yarns in medium and fine cotton counts segments. Compact yarns are cost-effective due to less sizing. They also improve efficiency of the loom and spinners have the advantage of low recycling of fibres. So, demand for sizing materials that offer high penetration in the yarn has gone up. We have met this challenge due to selective polyacrylates and also due to the type of starch used in their products.
Instead of own sizing recipes, companies and technocrats prefer one shot sizes. These come with proven technology and offer convenience to the preparatory section of the textile industry. It also reduces dependence on workers. Depending upon yarn count, sizing needs are different. We have introduced four grades of one shot sizes to suit the end use depending on counts. These offer greater weaving efficiency and also desizing.
What are the R&D initiatives of the company?
We have developed an enzyme product that has the ability to withstand higher pH. It provides relaxation in frequent pH adjustments during the desizing operation. This product is suitable for the denim industry.
We have also developed a polyacrylate that offers very high adhesion and simultaneously promotes penetration of size. This powder has more than 95 per cent active contents.
What percentage of your revenue is invested in R&D?
As the company is in the growth phase and is still in the product development mode, we are spending double digit figures on R&D.
What are the problems plaguing this sector?
The market is flooded with low cost and low quality products. This makes acceptability of good quality products, slow.
What are the top challenges that you face as a textile chemicals industry?
As far as speciality performance based companies are concerned, customer acquisition process is extremely lengthy.
What is the global market size for textile sizing and textile-processing chemicals?
It is difficult to come out with any figure due to county-wise complexity of the industry but the Indian sizing industry is over US$ 1.2bn.
What is the target for the next two years?
We are here to create a niche. Our vision is to become a total solution provider company in the next two years. Every month, we add at least one new product for the industry.
What are the sustainable practices at your company?
We try our best to use renewable sources of energy. We use bio-based chemicals in place of basic chemicals as much as possible, irrespective of cost.
Published on: 02/05/2017
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
