Advancement in Sewing Technology

Bhavyaa | bhavyaa111993@gmail.com
Roadmap
- Garment manufacturing process
- How does a sewing machine work?
- 5 popular advancements in sewing technology
- Advantages & disadvantages of development in sewing technology
- Key takeaways
- Q&A
- References
How does a sewing machine work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RfGqGiEGTU
 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
 Vision Sewing

Automatic
Bobbin Changer

5 popular advancements Real Time

Monitoring
in sewing technology
Digital Feed
System

Modular Sewing
Machines
Vision 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. 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.
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
commercialized the use of automatic bobbin changers which
stocks eight bobbins in the exchange plate and can be integrated
with SNLS machines.
Real-time monitoring
in sewing machines
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.
Digital feed system in sewing machines
Improvement of productivity on a shopfloor is as important as timely delivery of goods to the buyers. Even
the slightest of productivity increase notes a significant improvement in efficiency. With the increasing
labour costs, the advanced sewing machines are the need of the hour to save the time wasted in non
value-added activities. A number of sewing machine manufacturers available aver to improve productivity
with the help of their digital feed sewing machines.

Integrating digital feed in a sewing machine means separating the movement of feed dog from the main
shaft which is controlled by a servo motor. A stepper motor is introduced into the machine that
independently drives the feed dog. The use of a separate stepper motor allows for precise reverse
feeding, design stitching and simultaneous condensed and backtack on the same seam.

Some of them are Brother’s S-7300A, Juki DDL-9000C, TYPICAL GC6930A and Duma DM1969M.
Sewing machine settings
through mobile phone
The settings on sewing machine have to be adjusted from time to time according to the style of the
garment the operator is working upon. These settings should be uniform for each and every sewing
machine, but manually changing the settings over each sewing machine is a time-consuming task.

The newest trend is to adjust the settings on sewing machine with the help of an Android tablet in
contactless mode or over Wi-Fi or even a mobile phone. The settings, once changed on sewing machine,
can then be copied on the complete production line with just one tap on the device.

Such a feature enables saving of time and a quick check for uniform settings as well as confirmation of
conditions of sewing machines in a sewing line, thereby facilitating set-up changes. Brother S-7300A and
Juki DDL-9000C offer such features. Pfaff showed same android tablet monitoring in CISMA 2013.
Modular Sewing Machine
The sewing machines have now moved away from their rigid structure where a sewing machine was
designed to perform a particular function, leaving no room for changing of parts to perform a different
function. Besides, investment in a new machine is not a feasible option.

The innovation in this section brings forth the development of modular sewing machines where the
components can be changed and fitted with a new component to adjust to future needs. Such facility no
longer requires buying of a new machine, thus increasing the flexibility of the existing sewing machine.
The repairing would also require replacing the module with a new one, thus avoiding down times and
possible bottlenecks in production.

Vetron by Xi’an Typical is the first sewing machine which has grouped all the components of the sewing
machine into ‘technology modules’ that can be exchanged at any time. The company has made possible to
transform a flatbed machine into a longarm machine and vice versa.
A couple of more innovations….
Pedal less sewing
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.
Convertibility in sewing machine
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.
Is This Sewing Robot The Future Of Fashion?
 Advantages & disadvantages of
development in sewing technology
Key Takeaways
https://www.businessinsider.com/best-sewing-machine#the-best-sewing-machi
ne-overall-1

http://apparelresources.com/technology-news/manufacturing-tech/10-popular
-sewing-technology-trends/

https://www.naijatechguide.com/2018/03/advanced-technologies-used-in-sew
ing-machines.html

https://apparelviewsbd.com/some-of-the-latest-technological-developments-2/
Q&A
References
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