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When the smartphone arrived people said, “Its a crazy
gadget that nobody would use”. The same goes for the

textile workflow we have doing it like this for hundreds of

years why change now.

even by single shirt or pants. This is important, as you laser up to 10 years of production time. So, it’s much
don’t want my front side on your back side, trust me it more accurate cutting and its fast. There is still one
will look strange. Also, the organizational complexity of problem the burn bubbles due to cutting accuracy and
this and making sure that the right pieces arrive at the fumes. You would need an incorporated fume extraction
right sewing station is always a stressful job and and fume dispersal technology that cleans the cutting
mistakes happen here also. area of fumes. So it’s getting complicated right, no
there is a solution at hand.
Using barcodes could solve some of these issues. They
are sometimes used but have we come up with the The L Series Laser cutters just introduced to the market
It’s funny to see how things change or better don’t digital printers to do the same. The reason for the right solution to keep track of all. Partly yes, but the use late this year from Summa NV is one of the first devices
change in our textile industry. As I have been working in change to digital was the benefit of smaller runs and is minimal in the textile industry and it’s only good if all on the market that fit this description. Summa also
it for more than 20 years in the textile printing industry, I better quality. We also could save on the screen and works correctly and they are not cut off in the process. included a conveyor belt in the machine that transports
found that change is the most difficult and least plate cost. So, we changed because of financial benefit the fabrics totally relaxed, making sure the fabric is not
accepted by the manufacturers and producers. not the technology. But the finishing of the garments is Funny, the solutions are there, the better workflow can stretched or pulled, so there are no sizing issues nor
still very much the same and again has not changed at be integrated in the current working conditions and the cutting errors. The very good automatic de-roller that is
As we started the digital revolution over 20 years ago, all. margins will increase. Software and control systems included in the system, also eliminates the telescoping
transforming the analog textile print to digital printing, I could be a solution, but the essential change is not issues that can happen at the calander station. The L
noticed how traditions and the common ways are hard We take the polyester sportswear fabrics, lay them up software, a new developed MIS system or control Series de-roller automatically arranges and feeds the
to break. The way we produce garments has not on stacks for cutting them to pieces by hand with stations. textile substrate perfectly for fast and excellent cutting.
changed and the textile producing world seems not to dangerous up and down cutting devices. These pieces
care how to increase the margin structures through after cutting are bundled in hundreds of items, that are The answer, cutting garments with a belt driven In the realization that operator errors can still occur,
technology but only via cost cutting. There is no need to extremely hard to keep track of in any factory. We also automatic laser cutting device that cuts from the roll and such as loading the wrong cutting file, would mean that
change or innovate, according to many, just lower the overproduce at least 10% for the just in case situation. only one operator needs to do the picking. the cutting shapes are not lined up with the fabric
wages and get cheaper raw materials. We have been As we really don’t know how many we might exactly images. Even if the cut file is correct there is still a lot of
doing it this way for years and we are happy with this need due to errors and failures. Then we have the issue Laser cutters have a great benefit if used correctly. lost time in reading all the markers that are needed to
way. These are many of the comments and responses I of sizes, most volume garments are made in There are some things you need to know, most glass find the correct shapes and items on the textile print.
get from customers and vendors in the industry. Why XS,S,M,L,XL,XXL, but the specials like cycling garments tube lasers from China will not give you the quality nor
change if it works, right? Well you are wrong! are made to fit one person. Let’s also not forget the the speed needed for the production of sportswear Understanding this issue Summa came up with a fully
amount of labor involved in this process. Many compa- garments. The issue is mostly the cheaper CO2 lasers automatic cutting system with a Vision camera. The
Looking back into our own technology history, I see a lot nies don’t even cut these pieces themselves but hire burn the polyester fabric because the cutting fumes camera detects the shapes that need to be cut and
of similarity. Like in the early days of the mobile phone, external companies to do this labor work for them. The leave too slowly from the area where the cutting takes cuts these on the fly via an intuitive AI system and
most people thought “I don't need this, I have a phone result hidden cost and less control on the production place. The result is small polyester bubbles that can because of this, the laser can even keep on cutting
at home”, then came the internet and people said, “I side. irritate the skin are left behind. This is a no go in the while transporting the fabric on the fly. No loss of time
have a Fax, why do I need this Email and this new web textile garment industry. and accurate to the mm.
thing”, when the smartphone arrived people said, “Its a Then we still need to colorize these fabrics, so we place
crazy gadget that nobody would use”. The same goes printed paper on the calander table and have one or So up to now lasers have not been used a lot in the Looks like we are starting to see some margins coming
for the textile workflow we have doing it like this for two people place the white fabrics cut pieces on the garment industry due to these reasons. it’s a different back in the business.
hundreds of years why change now. correct location on the paper. Mistakes are made by process, you need now to print sublimation inks on
misplacement, wrong textile on the wrong space, paper and transfer directly on to the uncut fabric There is a solution for the textile garment industry to
In the digital print industry, we have seen that printers forgotten items and the cost of labor is again underesti- (roll-to-roll). Later you can insert the roll into the laser produce more for less, but would we use it? I believe
have not changed much in the last 20 years. Yes, they mated. I’m not even talking about the optimal place- cutting device to cut the shapes needed. yes, because laser cutting is an essential part of an
became faster, better print quality and more colors are ment of the printed items on the paper, lots of paper automated workflow.
currently available, but the principle is still the same. We waste here also. Hidden cost is again the key word. There are a couple of things needed to make this
print sublimation inks on paper and transfer to the happen well: We just need to understand that this technology will
polyester substrate via a calander. First the printing was After this process the pieces fall behind the calandar A metal tube laser is essential to get good results. A bring more for less, just like our mobile phone that we
done via screen print, then offset and now we use and yet another person needs to sort them by type or metal laser tube is long lasting, more precise and stable did not need.

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