Steamtech Engineers Provide Best in Class Incense Stick Drying Solution
-32 kg or 100 tons of incense sticks, Kalpesh Shah has a dryer for all.
-Steamtec Engineers has dryers for every industry.
Agarbatti production requires numerous types of raw materials, aromatic ingredients and fragrances, but in a country like India with different seasons across the year, producing agarbatti on a large scale comes out as a challenge. During winters or rainy season, drying agarbattis and keeping moisture away post production is not an easy task. Rajkot based Steamtech Engineers has a solution for this. Through years of research, Steamtech Engineers has come up with dryer machine for removing the moisture from dhoop-agarbatti products. The head of the company, Kalpesh Shah, in a special conversation with Sugandh India, told that they have agarbatti drying machines in quantities ranging from 32 kg to 100 tonnes.
Kalpesh Shah’s Steamtec Engineers has the patent of all these machines. He told that he has machines to remove the moisture as well as add moisture to the products as per the requirement of the manufacturers. His dryer machines not only cater to the incense stick industry but also to cotton, food products, plants, spices and matchsticks. These dryers are in demand throughout various industries across the globe.
Kalpesh Shah founded Steamtech Engineers in 2005 and since then has been operating in Metora GI in Rajkot. He told that his firm has its own research and development unit, where machines are made as per the the requirements. These machines also get patented. A lot of research goes in to fill the gap of lack of drying products in industries globally. The solutions present, do not satisfy the needs.
Apart from the dhoop and agarbatti industry in India, Steamtech Engineers also export drying machines to Australia, Bhutan and various African countries. These machines are manufactured completely with indigenous technology. This can be considered as one of the best examples of Make in India.
In a conversation with Sugandh India, Kalpesh Shah said that during the last 4 years, the agarbatti industry has grown very rapidly. Earlier, the raw agarbatti was imported from Vietnam. Agarbatti makers used to dip it in scented oil and sell it. Then the government banned these imports to promote domestic industries. This also led to an influx of manufacturers in agarbatti industry. From small scale manufacturers to big companies, all are in to cater to the huge country wide demand. This has led to mass production and mass production requires better and more potent agarbatti drying solutions. With the increase in demand during season, companies start bulk production, but due to winters and rain, the issue of quick drying comes up as a challenge. This is more prevalent for small scale industries with factories in less space. We assessed this issue and came up with dryer machines. Our machines take up less space and quickly dry. Back then the process of drying was done under sunlight by keeping it on plastic. We did a lot of research on this and made a dryer machine.
He said that today our biggest clients are big brands like Cycle Agarbatti, Zed Black, Moksh, Abhinav Incense, etc. Our dryers take up less space and get the drying done quickly . For large industries we have 100 ton agarbatti drying machines. We also have machines for smaller industries. These are 65 kg, 125 and 250 kg machines. We realized that there is an even smaller scale requirement of machines for manufacturers in different states who belong to cottage industry. For this, we recently launched 32 kg agarbatti drying machine.
Explaining how these dryer machines work, he told that there are two types of dryers. One is for summers and the other is heat dryer. Heat dryers are for small scale manufacturers. Large companies who procure goods from small producers get these small dryer machines for them. This is to maximize output without loss of quality and all in less time.
In response to a question, Kalpesh Shah said that his company mostly manufactures machines as per the demand. Manufacturers have their own demands and needs. They tell us and then we prepare machines accordingly. Back in 2004, we installed 10-15 machines for moisture in cotton. Then a company from Australia, presented us with a requirement where they needed to remove moisture from basil leaves. Technically it is a very advanced country, but they did not have a machine for this. We made it as per their requirement, a trial was done and it was ready for use. We also export our machines to Africa and Bhutan. This way, whenever a challenge comes up, we find a solution for it.
He told Sugandh India that at the recent AIAMA Expo at bangalore, people were coming to his stall with all sort of requirements. One of the visitors presented his requirement that he wanted to remove moisture from the root of a plant, but the process should not affect the quality. We successfully fulfilled their requirement.
At present, in which industries are you giving your machines? In response to this question, Mr. Shah told that he also provides dryer machines to remove moisture from cotton, different types of vegetables, medicinal plants, herbs, spices and match sticks.
In response to a question, he said that these machines are designed in a way to consume very less energy and can run on gas, electricity, wood fire and diesel. These can also be used anywhere.
He concluded the conversation saying that it is Steamtech Engineer’s motto to solve customer’s problems and satisfy them.
