Raschel Bag Making Machines in India: A Buyer Spec Guide
Shortlisting raschel bag making machines in India starts with three answers the listings almost never give: which polymer you actually run, which bag format you sell, and what the machine produces in the months your bag orders go quiet. Settle those three and a specification becomes readable. Skip them and you are comparing quotes for machines that only look alike.
This is a buyer-side guide to reading the specification. It carries no figures of its own, because the figures worth having are the ones a builder puts in writing against your own bag sample.
Four decisions that make two quotes comparable
- Polymer, named before the order rather than after commissioning.
- Bag format, tubular net bag or flat bag, treated as two machine decisions until proven otherwise.
- Working width and gauge, stated in writing against your own bag sample.
- The changeover procedure, written into the order rather than promised in a meeting.
Quotes that cannot answer all four are not yet comparable, whatever else is printed on them. The rest of this page is how you get those four answers out of a listing that was never written to give them.
Why the Indian listings all read the same
Search this category and the first page is almost entirely trading pages: marketplace listings, exporter directories, a dealer page, and one blog post with nothing inside it. Most lead with a number in the headline and stop there. Several of the top results are the same Gujarat builder repeated across different platforms, which makes the market look considerably wider than it is.
None of those pages explain how a bag specification becomes a machine specification. That gap is why two quotes for the same machine class can describe genuinely different equipment, and closing it is the whole job of the sections below.
Start from the bag, not from the machine
This machine class feeds agricultural packaging: mesh bags for potatoes, onions and similar produce. Before opening any specification, write down what you sell.
- Polymer. These machines are offered around PP, PE and HDPE. Name the one you actually buy, and name it before the order rather than after commissioning.
- Bag format. Tubular net bag and flat bag are different production routes. Tubular net bag machines are a separate branch of this equipment family, not a setting on a keypad.
- Demand pattern. Produce packaging is seasonal. A machine that makes only bags stands still between seasons, and that idle time is paid for out of the same budget as the machine.
That last line is where first-time buyers lose the most money, and it leads straight into the next question.
Ask what else the machine runs
Machines in this class are commonly offered as convertible: the same frame is used for shade net, including double-layer shade net. Double needle bar raschel machines in this segment are also put to vegetable mesh bags, shade net and hay net, so one frame can sit behind several product lines.
Convertible in a listing is a claim about capability, not about effort. The follow-up questions are the useful part:
- What physically changes between bag and net production: settings only, or knitting elements, beams and takedown as well?
- How long does the changeover take with the builder own operators, and who trains yours?
- Which parts are consumed by that changeover, and are they held in stock in India?
A seller who answers those three in specifics has actually converted a machine. A seller who answers only that it can do both is reading you the brochure.
What the listing says, and what you still have to ask
| What the listing says | What you still have to ask | Why it changes the shortlist |
|---|---|---|
| Semi-computerised bag machine | Which functions are motorised and which are hand-set? | Hand-set functions decide how much of your output depends on one skilled operator. |
| Suitable for PP / PE / HDPE | Which of the three was the machine set up and test-run on? | You inherit the settings of the test-run material, not of all three. |
| Also makes shade net and double-layer shade net | What changes over, how long it takes, which parts it consumes | Decides whether off-season output is real capacity or a sales line. |
| Working width and gauge available | State both on the order in writing, against our bag sample | Width and gauge fix bag size and mesh opening; a range in a listing commits nobody. |
| Dispatch from Gujarat or Punjab | Where are service engineers based and where are wear parts held? | Downtime on this equipment is measured in travel time. |
On gauge specifically: the published figures for this machine class contradict each other across sources, so treat any gauge number you read in a listing as unverified until a builder states it against your own bag sample in writing. That is not evasion. It is the only version of the number that binds anyone.
Conditional conclusions
If you sell one bag size in one polymer and your volume is steady, then a dedicated bag configuration is the simpler buy: fewer changeovers, fewer spare parts to stock, less operator training to fund.
If your bag demand is seasonal and you have an outlet for shade net or hay net, then pay for the convertible configuration and have the changeover procedure written into the order rather than promised in a meeting.
If you are quoting tubular net bags and flat bags to the same customer, then treat them as two machine decisions until a builder demonstrates both formats on one frame in front of you.
This section does not apply if you are buying used or rebuilt equipment. There, the condition of the knitting elements and whether the original settings survived outrank every point above, and every question in this article assumes a new machine built to your specification.
Where the machine sits in India, and why that is a service question
Supply in this category clusters in two places: Gujarat, around Valsad and Vapi, and Punjab, around Ludhiana. For the purchase itself that distance is a line on a transport invoice. After commissioning it becomes the response time on a stopped machine, so ask where engineers are based and where wear parts sit before you weigh two otherwise similar offers.
A practical way to test the answer: ask when an engineer last travelled to a customer in your own state, and what the part was. A builder with real coverage answers that from memory. A builder without it changes the subject to the specification.
Where to read next
For how this machine forms the net rather than how to buy one, see our raschel bag machine page. To place it in the wider family, see raschel warp knitting machines and our breakdown of warp knitting machine types; the consumable knitting elements are covered in warp knitting machine parts. Machine configurations are listed on grandstarcn.com. Send your bag size, polymer and monthly volume through our contact page and we will tell you which questions your quotes have left open.
Frequently Asked Questions
What material can a raschel bag making machine run?
Machines in this class are offered around PP, PE and HDPE. The one that matters is the polymer the machine was actually set up and test-run on, because those are the settings you inherit on day one. Name your polymer before the order is placed, not after commissioning.
Can the same machine make shade net as well as bags?
It is commonly offered that way, and double-layer shade net is part of that claim. Ask what physically changes between the two products, how long the changeover takes with the builder own operators, and which parts it consumes. Capability and effort are two different answers.
What gauge do I need for onion and potato bags?
Gauge and working width follow your bag size and mesh opening, and the published gauge figures for this machine class disagree across sources. Have the builder state gauge and width in writing against your own bag sample instead of taking a number off a listing.
Where are these machines made in India?
Supply clusters in Gujarat, around Valsad and Vapi, and in Punjab, around Ludhiana. Treat location as a service question: ask where engineers are based and where wear parts are held, not only where the machine ships from.
Is a double needle bar raschel machine the same as a bag machine?
They overlap. Double needle bar raschel machines in this segment are used for vegetable mesh bags, shade net and hay net, so one frame can serve more than one product line. Tubular net bag machines are a separate branch, so confirm which format a quote actually covers.
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