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INNOVATION PROJECTS Street Sizing in Chirala Handloom
IIT DELHI Cluster

Dr S Mukhopadhyay and Kanika Prajapat
IIT Delhi

There is tremendous scope of improvements in Indian Handloom Industry. The need of improvement in one of the
handloom process, Street sizing was identified in Chirala Handloom cluster. The process of sizing is a very crucial
step in weaving. Currently this process is being done in a manner that is very tedious and repetitive. The operation
mainly consists of coating long warp sheet from starch paste by using hand held spray and heavy brush. It
strengthens the yarn so that it can endure the various forces exerted in weaving loom.Several prototypes were made
and a scaled model was installed at Chirala, where trials are being done by the local sizers only. Several iterations
have been made to our initial design as per sizers' feedback and the process of product development is still going
on.