Robots sew jeans now
2022.12.12 06:31
Robots sew jeans now
Budrigannews.com – Companies in the clothing and technology industries, including Siemens AG (OTC:) in Germany, are participating in a covert effort to find out. as well as Levi Strauss & Co.
“Clothing is the last trillion-dollar industry that hasn’t been automated,” Eugen Solowjow, who heads a project on automating apparel manufacturing at a Siemens lab in San Francisco since 2018, said.
During the pandemic, as clogged supply chains highlighted the risks of relying on distant factories, the idea of using robots to bring more manufacturing back from overseas gained momentum.
More clothing manufacturing could relocate back to Western consumer markets, including the United States, if handwork could be eliminated in China and Bangladesh. However, that is a delicate subject.
Because of concerns that workers in developing nations will suffer, many apparel manufacturers are reluctant to discuss the pursuit of automation. According to Jonathan Zornow, who has developed a method to automate some aspects of jeans factories, he has received online criticism as well as one death threat.
Levi’s spokesperson stated that he could confirm the company’s involvement in the project’s early stages, but declined further information.
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Automation is particularly difficult when sewing.
Cloth is floppy and comes in an infinite variety of thicknesses and textures, in contrast to a car bumper or a plastic bottle, which retains its shape as a robot handles it. Simply put, robots lack the dexterity of human hands. According to five researchers who were interviewed by Reuters, although robots are getting better, it will take years for their ability to handle fabric to be fully developed.
However, what if enough of it could be automated to at least reduce the cost gap between American and low-cost foreign factories? That is the primary focus of the current research project.
Work at Siemens outgrew endeavors to make programming to direct robots that could deal with a wide range of adaptable materials, for example, dainty wire links, said Solowjow, adding that they before long acknowledged one of the ripest targets was clothing. Statista, an independent data platform, estimates that there is a $1.52 trillion global apparel market.
In order to assist traditional manufacturers in making use of the new technology, Siemens collaborated with the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute in Pittsburgh, which was established in 2017 and received funding from the Department of Defense.
They found a San Francisco startup with a promising solution to the problem of floppy fabric. The startup Sewbo Inc. uses chemicals to stiffen the fabric so that it can be handled more like a car bumper during production rather than teaching robots how to handle cloth. The stiffening agent is removed from the finished garment by washing it.
According to Zornow, the inventor of the Sewbo, “This fits into the existing production system because pretty much every piece of denim is washed after it’s made anyway.”
Levi’s and Bluewater Defense LLC, a small manufacturer of military uniforms with its headquarters in the United States, were two of the clothing companies that eventually joined this research effort. The Pittsburgh Robotics Institute provided them with grants totaling $1.5 million to test the method.
Sewing factories are being automated in other ways. A Georgia-based startup called Software Automation Inc. has created a machine that can sew T-shirts by pulling the fabric over a specially designed table, for example.
Bluewater Defense’s CEO, Eric Spackey, participated in the research effort with Siemens, but is skeptical of the Sewbo strategy. According to Spackey, “putting (stiffening) material into the garment—it just adds another process,” which raises costs. However, he adds that it might make sense for producers, such as jeans manufacturers, who already wash garments as part of their normal operation.
Integrating robots into clothing factories is the first step.
Sanjeev Bahl, who opened a little pants plant in midtown Los Angeles quite a while back called Saitex, has concentrated on the Sewbo machines and is planning to introduce his most memorable exploratory machine.
In September, as he led people through his factory, he said that many of the tasks are ripe for the new process and pointed to workers who were hunched over old machines.
He stated, “I think there’s no reason not to have large-scale (jeans) manufacturing here in the United States again” if it succeeds.
