Digital Textile Printing US

Atlanta, GA, June 8-9

The Workflow For

Mass Customization Of
Digital Printed Sportswear
Traian Luca,
Co-Founder and CEO
Gemini CAD Systems
 About Gemini CAD Systems
• Gemini CAD Systems is a leading global
provider of technology for industries
working with soft flexible materials
such as textile, composites or leather
• Our activity includes research,
development and implementation of
software, hardware and workflow
solutions for apparel, furniture and
automotive
• 15 years of activity and continuous
investments in R&D.
• 16.000+ customers across 38 countries
TEXPROCESS & TECHTEXTIL FRANKFURT 2017
How do we see the digital textile printing
from the perspective of a supplier of
apparel CAD-CAM technology ?
We must differentiate three different methods for
digital textile printing:
Fabrics Printing Parts Printing Direct to Garment (DtG)
Printing rolls of fabrics Printing parts with a Printing directly onto
with repetitive certain shape and an ready-made garments,
patterns (tiles) artwork matching the such as t-shirts
shape, which will be later
sewn into products
 The focus of AutomART is on
Sportswear, Swimwear, Womenswear
which do not include repetitive tiles
 Garments made of Printed Parts
The shape, size and position of the artwork are strictly
related to the shape of the product.
The artwork is not a repetitive print applied on a raw
fabric, but rather a specific design for that product and
usually customized for each consumer.
This differentiates it from the Tiled Fabrics Printing

Prints extend on the bleed margins of the cut parts,

which are the actual seam allowance needed for
assembling the product.
Prints can go all around the product and in difficult to
reach area.
This differentiates it from the DtG (Direct to Garment)
GARMENTS are not UMBRELLAS
 GARMENTS are not UMBRELLAS

Garments are graded to size or made-to-measure

and Illustrator or Corel do not have any clue what this is,
so they cannot handle the garments pattern design
What tools are being used today
for designing and producing digitally printed
sportswear, swimwear and womenswear ?
 While graphical artwork is
designed in Illustrator,
Photoshop or similar
applications

Without exception, Patterns

are designed and graded
in a dedicated apparel CAD
software
 The contours of all sizes are transferred
from CAD software to Illustrator via DXF file
The artwork is placed over the contours
The absence of grading functions in Illustrator
means the background should be manually
scaled to include the biggest size…
… and logos and other internal elements are scaled
to fit the smallest size
The same graphics will be used for ALL SIZES
Matching the artwork on seam lines is challenging and
it is difficult to do it on each individual size
The parts are “nested” for printing
 The lack of efficiency is determined by the minimal
gap between parts needed later for placing the cloth pieces
The group of parts for one full product are printed
on a transfer paper sheet
…and finally the white fabric pieces are placed
over the paper and fed into the calender
But... wait! Which fabric pieces ??
Meanwhile, in a totally separated process…
Patterns must follow the typical workflow
for garments production
Including Grading, Checking, Checking, Seam Allowance,
Folds, Darts, Fabric Types, etc.
Then, order quantities must be received from
ERP or PM to make the cutting plan
Patterns are nested
In most cases a multi-ply cutter is used to process larger
quantities and store them in an intermediary buffer
Various white parts belonging to many products and orders
and fabric types must be stored
And retrieved later just in time for production,
hopefully without errors…
… so the right white textile parts will meet
at the right time the transfer paper
And finally, the printed pieces are ready
A quick evaluation of the current workflow:
 A quick evaluation of the current workflow:

>40% of the transfer paper is wasted

because it remains white. This is not caused only by the lack of an efficient automatic nesting engine,
but is actually required by calender operators, who must have a big gap between parts, in order to
play with white textile elements, compromising for placement.
 A quick evaluation of the current workflow:
• >40% of the transfer paper is wasted

>40% of the printer time is wasted

because this happens if you use the printer to process 40% white paper, right?
 A quick evaluation of the current workflow:
• >40% of the transfer paper is wasted
• >40% of the printer time is wasted

> 30% of the ink is wasted

because all printed shapes are actually bigger than the biggest size, so for all smaller sizes there
is a huge bleed contour. This also adds to the wasted paper.
 A quick evaluation of the current workflow:
• >40% of the transfer paper is wasted
• >40% of the printer time is wasted
• > 30% of the ink is wasted

Quality problems
in artwork placement because matching the artwork on seam lines is really important and it is difficult
to do it on all sizes without specific grading and checking functions
 A quick evaluation of the current workflow:
• >40% of the transfer paper is wasted
• >40% of the printer time is wasted
• >30% of the ink is wasted
• Quality problems

High Labor & Logistics Costs

The level of (non)automation is unbelievable for the 21st century:
People placing parts by hand on paper, continuously compromising about position and alignments,
a true marvel of modern mass customization.
 A quick evaluation of the current workflow:
• >40% of the transfer paper is wasted
• >40% of the printer time is wasted
• >30% of the ink is wasted
• Quality problems
• High Labor & Logistics Costs

Limitation only to Sublimation

All other printing technologies are direct-to-fabric, therefore roll-to-roll, therefore unusable with pre-cut parts
 A quick evaluation of the current workflow:

• >40% of the transfer paper is wasted

• >40% of the printer time is wasted
• >30% of the ink is wasted
• Quality problems
• High Labor & Logistics Costs
• Limitation only to Sublimation
This is a YouTube movie posted in 2017 by sportswear
manufacturer, really proud of its workflow and technology:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfZi7UHOnGc
So, what did Gemini CAD Systems
do to solve these problems ?

Our solution is actually pretty simple:

Unify the two separate technologies

Apparel CAD and Digital Printing
 Gemini CAD Systems enabled its Pattern Designer
software to handle high-quality, printable graphical content
(ready-to-print EPS and PDF files)
The user can place, scale, rotate, overlap the artwork
directly onto the patterns
The user can apply grading (resize the content)
to match the grading size of each piece
 And can perform all necessary checking
and adjustments to ensure a perfect quality
 The content (title, logos, colors) can be dynamically
replaced in order to automatically process large orders
retrieved from the company’s ERP or PM systems
Gemini Cut Planner separates the different fabric types, combines products
and orders and generates the print & cut queue based
on the quantities received from the ERP or PM
 Gemini Nest Expert can perform fully automatic parts nesting,
with high efficiency rate and it acts like any imposition software,
generating directly the print job up to 100m long
The application generates directly the EPS or PDF file for
the digital printer and the cut file for the single ply cutter
Printing and dye sublimation can be made in a roll-to-roll,
fully automated process.
Direct-to-Fabric is also compatible with this workflow.
Cutting is made on a single ply cutter fitted with machine vision
recognition and distortion compensation system
 Cut Collect Wizard solves the puzzle generated by product and
orders mix and helps the operator to retrieve the parts correctly,
using a pick-by-light / drop-by light system
Introducing AutomART
 www.geminicad.com

E-Commerce platforms

Consumer
Consumer Interaction Customization
Content (Questions, Choices
(Artwork, Text, Dimensions,
Options, Customization
Guidance) Style, , Fabrics, Quantities)
Consumer Order
Product Visualization
Confirmation
(3D VR Simulation, Digital
(Confirmation based on 3D
Artwork Placement)
Visualisation)

LECTRA

GERBER APOGY POS INTERFACE

PLUGINS for e-Commerce platforms (Magento,
GEMINI CAD Shopify, etc) and proprietary ERP platforms
FILES RIP,
PDF PRINTER
ASSYST
OPTITEX APOGY CLOUD STORAGE
product designs, artwork, APOGY BESPOKE
Orders Processor for
fabrics, accessories, etc
customized products,
AutomART Cut Planning, Nesting
Desktop
Application
VisionCUT
CUTTER
APOGY BASE SERVICES
CONSUMER DATA CUT Cut&Colle
Behaviour Statistics,
Unified Identity Management,
Predictive Fashion Reports ct
Resources Encryption & Sharing
ADOBE
ART
WORK
COREL APOGY CLOUD PLATFORM

Apparel Mass Customization

 Q&A

Thank you!