THE MECHATRONIC PRINCIPLES FOR INTELLIGENT SEWING ENVIRONMENTS

The subjective decisions during textile and garment manufacture are mi micked and implemented in the next generation of intelligent apparel m anufacturing environments. A Sewability Integrated Environment (SIE) h as been devised which consists of three mechatronic systems: the Sewab ility Prediction System which can automatically predict material probl ems and advise correction of properties prior to manufacture, the Inte lligent Sewing System which can automatically set the optimum static a nd dynamic sewing parameters of the sewing machinery, and the Safeguar d Quality System to ensure high quality and consistency. These systems are integrated to form an on-line intelligent environment which is ca pable of self-learning (automatic updating). These systems have been d esigned and developed to enable on-line, automatic measurement of fabr ic properties such as tension, bending, thickness and compression as w ell as stitching quality, which are all interconnected with each other . Two different paradigms are implemented: seam pucker, as it is mostl y found in woven fabrics, and sewing damage, found in densely knitted fabrics. The operation of these environments is robust and should not require special operational skill. Pilot industrial trials have identi fied improvements from implementing such systems in production efficie ncy, flexibility of manufacture quality and design enhancements of pro ducts.