Will the textile industry enter the era of robotics?

Technological frontier

In the textile industry, robots play an increasingly important role from cotton picking to spinning to cutting garments. Just when the fabric is stitched into a whole, the human hands seem to be far better than the clumsy, stiff robotic arm. However, this situation has changed recently. A startup in Seattle recently successfully used an industrial robot to sew a T-Shirt, which means that the textile industry may be in full-automation in the near future, and sewing workers around the world may be at risk of being laid off.

In the fabric processing industry, mechanization has long been the protagonist. From cotton picking to spinning to cutting garments, robots have semi-automated the production of many garments.

Cynthia Istik, a textile/clothing researcher at North Carolina State University, said that in highly automated factories, fabrics are first cut through mechanical textiles, followed by computer-controlled cutting opportunities. Clothing parts such as collars and cuffs in formal shirts can also be machine-made, and some more specialized machines can even sew buttons or pockets themselves.

However, for the textile industry, having the robot stitch the fabric into a whole (such as a pair of jeans or T-shirts) is still the biggest challenge. Even the most advanced factory, which generally rely on manual processes to complete: robot after completion of all components of clothes, sewing workers and then stitched into the fabric, and then sutured fabrics delivered to the next link in the pipeline.

However, history is being rewritten. Recently, Jonathan Zorno, founder and sole employee of Seattle-based startup Sewbo, said that he has made a breakthrough, saying that he has overcome the common obstacles of garment automation and successfully used a industrial robot to sew a T-Shirt.

3D printing for inspiration

Prior to founding Sewbo, Zorno was a programmer who was fascinated by highly automated mechanical projects. When studying 3D printing, he discovered a water-soluble thermoplastic polymer material. This material is the raw material for 3D printing and is also commonly used in the textile industry. Zorno realized that by immersing the soft cloth in the molten polymer, a "hard fabric" that is easy to automate can be obtained.

Prior to suturing, Zorno first used the ultrasonic welding technique to "splicing" the fabric together. After the stitching is completed, the finished product is immersed in a water-soluble thermoplastic polymer material, "making it like a metal sheet, making it easier for traditional robots to operate." After the production is completed, the robot will immerse the fabric in hot water and wash away the polymer “enhancer” to make the fabric look back.

The robot is priced at $35,000

To complete this process, Zorno used a sewing machine and a robotic arm called the UR5. This collaborative robot is built on a general-purpose machine and sells for about $35,000 (about RMB 235,500). It is designed to work with or assist humans. Its setting process is very simple, as long as it is displayed to it or set up using special software, UR5 can repeat the specified task.

Zorno used video to show the media the process of sewing a T-shirt. He believes that using this technology, in an industrial environment, manufacturers can automate each step: cutting, hardening, high-frequency acoustic vibration shaping, sewing, flushing and so on. At present, Zorno is seeking like-minded business partners, with the goal of opening a fully automated garment production line with robots.

Automatic textile

Production line used

In fact, this is not the first time an American has attempted to manufacture a fully automated textile production line. In 2012, the Pentagon allocated $1.2 million to Softwear Automation, a subsidiary of Georgia Tech, to help them develop computer-controlled sewing machines. This year, the company developed a custom robot that successfully stitched two pieces of fabric from one pair of jeans, but still couldn't fully automate the production of the entire pair of jeans.

Zorno said that by automating the garment processing industry, the outflowing garment manufacturing industry will gradually return to the mainland. In order to pursue low cost, many well-known clothing companies in the United States will open factories in countries and regions with lower labor prices. Center for American Progress report noted that the United States first fifteen largest clothing importer as long as a month to pay a Bangladeshi textile workers to $ 91.45, while the average monthly salary of textile workers in the United States is $ 1922.

However, once the technology is mature, tens of thousands of textile workers in Southeast Asia will be affected. According to the ILO report, nearly 90% of textile workers in Southeast Asia and Cambodia will lose their jobs in the face of the threat of automated production lines. "Every time there is new technology, this kind of worry will exist," Zorno said. But he added that almost all technological innovations ended up "making all humans benefit" and he hoped that history would repeat the process.

Can you get a promotion?

The outside world believes that the biggest selling point of this technology is that manufacturers can put new designs into mass production in one day. If you go through the traditional process, a new design can take several months from manufacturing to shipping.

Zorno believes that this advantage will definitely give a new meaning to "fast fashion." “With fast fashion, reprogrammable robots can produce a large number of products, which will shorten the supply chain and reduce the development cycle of the fashion industry,” he told Quinta.com.

However, there is still doubt about whether this technology can be promoted. Although Zorno said that water-soluble thermoplastic polymers can be reused, Istik believes that this method leads to excessive use of chemical reagents and water resources. “With the extra time-consuming production links, all this will offset the cost and resource advantages of automation,” she said.