RmKV, manufacturer and retailer of silk saris, has introduced a modernised pneumatic handloom to eliminate the physical strain of handloom weaving and to attract the younger generation to the industry. The pneumatic loom utilises compressed air to lift the assembly and an electronic jacquard controller, with an inbuilt design base.

The jacquard controller can easily be integrated with a regular handloom and reduces the time taken to produce a sari. Earlier, it took one month to weave two or three saris, but with this technology, 15 saris can be produced.

Weaving a simple sari using the traditional method would require at least 5,000 cards and it could go up to as high as 1.5 lakh cards for complicated designs. Using the pneumatic loom saves time as designs are stored in the memory chip which could be easily changed by the weaver with practice.

The past decade witnessed a reduction in the number of weavers across the country. Kanchipuram, which used to have 50,000 weavers, now has only 10,000. Since weaving is labor intensive, it wears down people after 15 to 20 years of constant work. Women refrained from participating in weaving as it involved physical strain. But now, with easy operation, women can get involved.

https://www.rmkv.com/