AEPC signs MoU with Pai Lung for functional fabrics in India

New Delhi, Oct 17 (UNI) The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) today said it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Taiwan-based Pai Lung Machinery Mill to improve the availability of functional fabrics which are anti-bacterial, stain-resistant and need not be washed.

Pai Lung will also support the AEPC's Knitwear Technology Mission for transfer of skills on technical textiles, industrial fabrics, eco-friendly textiles and high-value manmade textiles, it said in a statement.

The Taipei-based company will conduct workshops, make sample apparels and render support to Indian manufacturers for setting up knitting units for speciality garments.

AEPC Chairman Rakesh Vaid and Pai Lung's President James Wang signed the MoU at Tirupur.

''The knitwear industry have so far concentrated only on cotton wears mainly for summer season, leaving a huge gap in fabrics to keep up pace with emerging trends in fashion internationally -- especially for winter and sports wears,'' said Mr Vaid.

The Knitwear Technology Mission will identify and widen the range of fabrics from the present cotton to manufacture heavy winter wears, swim and performance wears.

''With an estimated cost of Rs 15 crore, the initiative will empower the exporting community to go in for wider range of products in different kinds of fabrics to cater to a larger market,'' he said.

The mission will have a research and development laboratory, a library to provide all minute details of a wide variety of fabrics, a fashion and design studio and a machine laboratory, besides housing a training centre spread over 40,000 square feet. The building will be ready in eight months.

The AEPC is a nodal agency of the Textiles Ministry and represents over 8,000 readymade garment exporters.

Pai Lung is a professional knitting machine maker with annual sales of 68 million dollars and caters to markets in Southeast Asia, North and South Americas, West Asia and Africa.

In recent years, researchers in some countries have developed unique processes to create large sheets of fabric and lengths of yarn using carbon nanotubes.

The nanotechnology fabrication techniques result in high-quality carbon nanotube membranes with controllable thickness and topology at high speed and low cost for many practical applications.

Work is also on to develop smart fabrics incorporating cunning molecules or clever electronics so that clothes can monitor a person's heart, measure the chemical composition of body fluids or keep track of a person's location and local environment that could revolutionise healthcare and emergency response.

UNI MP AK DS1415