1. DIPAK BHARALI Innovator & Entrepreneur Sualkuchi, Assam, India Extra Weft Insertion Device

2. The innovation Designing in loom is done by inserting the extra weft through the warp.

3. During inserting the extra weft raising of warp thread done by Jacquard, But the task of the insertion of weft threads done manually which is tedious, cumbersome and time consuming. The innovation

4. To solve this Dipak Bharali has innovated a device for inserting the weft threads. The innovation reduces the time required for making designs to one third of what is required in the traditional way of doing it.

5. Value addition The first working model he developed was made up of wood (2006) NIF gave a project on value addition to Prof. A K Das of Department of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. Dipak and Prof Das has made number of models and after dozens of trial and error, successfully made the marketable version of extra weft insertion device.

6. Value Addition in Bobbin In the entire process of development of the device, development of the bobbin takes much of his time. He made special bobbin using special bearing but the same had some alignment problem with the magnets, which results in dragging of bobbin in a different angle leading to improper weaving of design he solved this using micro ball bearing as advised by one of our innovator Shri Nripen Kalita. Another demerits of the bobbin was that the art silk gets uncoiled due to elasticity and this creates problem in working so to avoid this the innovator wants to add a cup shaped cover surrounding the bobbin keeping a hole for the art silk to pass through it. Prof. A K Das who mentor him in the development of the device told that the cover he wants to make will not work rather it will prevent smooth passage of the art silk. He modified shape of the bobbin to solve the problem.

7. Value Addition in Magnet Earlier he used the magnet of small speaker that are round in shape. Then he thought of replacing it with magnet having thread at the bottom so that it can be screwed. But from the discussion with Prof Das it was decided that pyramid shaped magnets that will get itself clumped with the magnet bearing shaft.

8. Value Addition in Holding Assembly In the first model a weaver has to keep the shaft over the weaving cloth while in the new model the shaft hang from the loom and is placed near the beater. When required a weaver can pull it down and after the work is over a spring will pull the shaft to its original position. Prof Das told to use pipe instead of metal sheet for the holding assembly. Because the spring mechanism can be kept inside the pipe reducing the chance of copying but in case of metal sheet it has to be kept open.

9. Before Value Addition After Value Addition

10. Recognisation State award Innovator was awarded in NIF’s Fifth National Biennial Awards in 2009. GE India innovation award (2011) Ministry of chemical & fertilizer, tech innovation in petrochemical and downstream plastic processing industry 2010-11 All the MP’s of Northeastern part of India appreciated him for the device. Central silk board (CSB) has enlisted the device in the list of technology provided by them to the beneficiaries now CSB will provide the device to its beneficiaries at 80% subsidies rate.

11. Diffusion: Till now he sold around 600 devices throughout India. This includes the 250 devices provided by the CSB to the weaver under 80% subsidy The device has widely accepted by the weavers of different states of India viz. Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal Internationally the device has wide potential in the countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and any other countries where handloom is in demand.

12. Thank you