Part I OF I Tamil Nadu.pmd - National Innovation Foundation

PART I : INNOVATIONS FROM TAMIL NADU
08
Continuous weft feeding looms
Shanmugam’s inspiration for innovation comes from his desire to improve the livelihood
of his traditional weaving community. Shanmugam first observed the time and manpower
wasted in changing the pirn windings of power looms while working in his uncle’s power
loom centre. To address this problem, he built a modification to the shuttle loom that
continuously inserts weft without frequent pirn change. In this new method, two weft cone
stands are placed at the sides of the loom, and are specially arranged so that they can
control yarn tension and electronic weft stop motion. This inexpensive and easy to maintain
system increases productivity by 15-20% and increases fabric quality and reduces labour
need. He got admission in not only polytechnic directly in second year but also in
engineering college later due to his brilliance.
S Shanmugam
Salem
He received a National award in NIF’s Fourth National Competition for Grassroots
Innovations and Traditional Knowledge Practices in 2007.
TAMIL NADU INNOVATES 19