Apparel Online Bangladesh Magazine October Issue 2018 | Page 46

Popular 10 technology trends
in sewing machine
With the outburst of Industry 4.0, the apparel industry is witnessing the outbreak of innovations in sewing
process. These innovations are transitioning the status of apparel manufacturers from being manually relied
to tech and digitally focused. Apart from helping in shortening time to market, these trends have taken
competition to the next level, which surely will become a survival necessity in the coming future. Big events,
such as Texprocess and CISMA, note the new technological developments for apparel industry, disrupting
the use of current methods. Team Apparel Online brings to its readers the popular 10 technology trends in
sewing that will change the meaning of apparel manufacturing soon.
1
2
Vision sewing Pedal less sewing
Decorative stitching requires
an accurate fabric feeding
to the machine, resulting in
precise stitching. It is the
operator and his high skill set
which manipulate the fabric
direction to sew curve and
other shapes of patches to be
sewed. In the wake of scarcity
of high skill set, vision sewing
system emerges as an easier
way out to obtain flawless
decorative stitches. Foot pedals in sewing
machine is one area where
sewing machine operators
spend most of their time
to get control while sewing
complex stitches and the
critical parts. The industrial
sewing machines are slowly
coming up with the concept of
pedal less sewing machine,
rendering electronic control of
stitches.
The system can be integrated
with conventional single
needle lockstitch, chainstitch
machines or electronically
programmable pattern sewing
machines.
The vision sewing system,
integrated with an industrial
camera look (capture image),
processes the captured image
at the split of a second and
directs mechanical actions by
transferring it to the electronic
programmable sewing
machine. The whole process
requires no high skill sets,
instead much lesser time. The
key benefits of vision system
include a consistent sewing
speed for multiple patch
sewing, automatic sewing
of patterns, improved/less
handling of the garment or
fabric and no operator sewing
skills.
Brother Vision Sewing System
pioneered the system and
more players are likely to
follow soon.
Xi’an Typical recently won
Texprocess Innovation Award
2017 for its ‘Vetron Trace’, the
first sensor-based technology
that offers full control over
industrial sewing machines
without pedals. The natural
working movements of the
users are mapped as if by an
invisible hand and the data
collected is used to begin the
new step.
Jack is another sewing
machine provider that is
providing the option of
pedal less sewing. In its
C4 overlock machine,
it offers three operation
modes – full intelligent mode,
semi-intelligent mode and
computerised mode. In full
intelligent mode, the machine
can work automatically without
foot.
3
Automatic
bobbin changer
A single needle lockstitch
operating at high efficiency
comes to a sudden halt when
the bobbin thread is consumed
fully and requires replacement
with a new bobbin. Usually
carried out manually, the
process consumes additional
time rendering a plunge in
productivity.
For uninterrupted sewing,
automatic bobbin changers are
becoming the need of the hour.
Kinoshita has successfully
commercialised the use of
automatic bobbin changers
which stock eight bobbins
in the exchange plate and
can be integrated with SNLS
machines.
Embroidery machines, on
one hand, are finding greater
utility of automatic bobbin
changers while the industrial
sewing machines are still new
to this. Tajima’s Smart Bobbin
Changer (SBC) can take
only 6 seconds to replace the
bobbins for all heads, reducing
the downtime of the machine
due to bobbin replacement.
Another embroidery machine
player, Aura Technologies also
employs pneumatic bobbin
changer in its embroidery
machines. Recently Jack
has announced auto bobbin
changer in its single needle
lockstitch model.
46 Apparel Online Bangladesh | October 2018 | www.apparelresources.com
4 5
Real-time
monitoring in
sewing machines Convertibility in
sewing machine
The apparel industry is now
moving fiercely towards
Industry 4.0 and digitalization
is one outcome of the same.
With discrete gonotrophic
locations of apparel units, it
becomes almost difficult to
control and monitor the status
of production. Real-time
monitoring is what apparel
industry is harnessing the most
out of shopfloor.
The smart sewing machines
are networked over a server
which can be viewed over a
smartphone or a tablet, from
anywhere in the world. The
intelligent machine network
solution allows to view the
status of a whole production
line or even a single machine in
real time. This real-time status
not only helps in the detection
of probable obstructions during
production but also mentions
the scope of productivity
improvement.
Juki is toying with Intelligent
Sewing System (ISS) for quite
some time. Digital Process
Analysis (DPA) Software from
Pegasus also does real time
monitoring of sewing line.
Brother’s 7300A shows similar
capability and very recently
Duerkopp Adler entered the
fray with Qondac Networks that
digitizes the sewing production
and gives the user access to
remotely control it.
Convertibility of bed type,
feed type and stitch type is
a long pending requirement
in sewing machine. Juki and
Brother’s double needle
lockstitch machine used
to offer switching between
needle feed to drop feed for
long time. Bed types were
often custom converted from
raised to flat type in case
of overlock for long seams.
However, now some brands
offer submerged bed to
raised bed in case of eyelet
buttonhole machine.
Bar tack to button sewing
convertibility is another recent
offering by sewing brands.
Simply by changing the
presser foot, switching the
mode of the built-in software,
bar tack machine can work
as a button sewing machine
without changing the parts
inside the machine. Both
Typical and Siruba (BT290)
offer such model.