Embroidery manufacturing

The materials of the thermocouples — stainless steel yam and constantan wire — are processed onto the mattress topper layer by tailored fibre placement (TFP). TFP is an embroidering technique that is used to stitch fibres and yams that cannot be used as an embroidery yarn on a basic fabric. The reasons of their non-suitability of embroidery can be their thickness, fineness, or stickiness or the material itself. The principle of the TFP method is shown in Figure 9.6. The TFP method is most suitable for large-scale manufacturing. The upper sewing thread primarily serves to fix the thermocouple... 

The proportion of direct expenses is not very significant, but this is the cost involved in assisting garment manufacturing. An example would be a company purchases any license to run a machine or process or any royalty paid by the company to another company as a part of business. Also, any small contract work involved, such as embroidery, special finish to a garment, etc., is treated as direct expense. 

In decorative embroidery, elaborate stitching is sewn onto a base fabric. In order to make a free-standing 3D structure, the base fabric is dissolved away. An example, which is used in reconstractive shoulder surgery (McQuaid, 2005), is shown in Figure 1.12. The product was designed by Peter Butcher and manufactured by Ellis Developments Ltd. 

The combination of embroidery technology and intelligent textiles was, until very recently, a contradiction - now they are one and the same. The examples of unconventional uses of embroidery, as presented in this chapter, indicate the potential still to be exploited. However, we are at the very beginning of exploring this field, and extensive research and development work will be required for the eventual manufacture of commercial products. Tailor-made and/or three-dimensional textiles capable of withstanding forces will be with us and clothe us - the smart textiles of the new millennium. 

Although LEDs have limited functionality in textiles, they are a reliably simple tool to add desirable optical effects to textiles. For these applications, technical embroidery is a beneficial technology that ensures efficient and reliable manufacturing. For example, a Swiss company, Forster Rohner, has developed an embroidery-based approach to manufacture luxury interior textiles and clothing outfitted with integrated LEDs... 

Zimmerman, 2013). ZSK Stickmaschinen and the research institute TITV Griez also demonstrate an efficient approach to the manufacturing of light-emitting textiles via embroidery technology and the application of LED sequins (Figure 7.3). 

All three previously mentioned classes of embroidery are typically used when attempting to increase productivity in automated manufacturing. There are various machine configurations available, including up to 11 parallel embroidery heads for TFP and more than 56 parallel heads for standard embroidery (Figure 7.9). Due to this... 

Moving to the next integration level, we consider that weaving, stitching, and embroidery of conducting yams in or on the fabric are currently used to achieve electrical properties. In principle, standard manufacturing methods are used to incorporate the conducting yam in the textile, such as ... 

The textile process of embroidery allows a manufacturer to stich a yarn material to a textile in a highly defined geometry [Gries et al, 2007], To begin the process, the pattern is designed to specifications. Then the pattern is brought into specialized embroidery software for punching. A file definition is made and then is then converted into embroidery machine code. There are three commonly used types of embroidery standard embroidery, chain stitch embroidery, and tailored fiber placement. Each of these processes will be further defined. 

The three embroidery processes mentioned here are often used in order to create highly customized parts while balancing the increased efficiency of automated textile manufacturing. Many modifications and hybrid systems exist in order to increase the productivity. For example, TFP machines exist with up to 11 heads in order to create 11 parts in a single batch. Furthermore, standard embroidery machines exist with 56 parallel heads for increased productivity, while each of these machines may have a different color set for increased customization. A typical example is shown in Fig. 9.15. These systems give embroidery technology a decent efficiency when compared with other multihead textile equipment. 

In clothing manufacturing, several semiautomated technologies are available and used in industrial-scale production. These systems are designed to manufacture a particular seam. The user positions the textile, which moves into the machine and is then joined with another textile (Fig. 10.14). This technique can also be used for embroidery (Diirkopp, 2009). 

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