Handling of flexible materials in automation

Abstract

Flexible materials are in widespread use in the home and in industry. A particularly important subset is that of sheet-like limp materials such as fabrics which have low resistance to out-of-plane bending. Yet it is only recently that the automated handling of such materials has received much attention, arising from attempts by researchers to automate the assembly processes. The apparel and footwear industries rarely get the media, political and academic attention merited by their importance in economic and employment terms. With textiles, the apparel industry was the source of over 10% of total industrial output, and in many countries was in the top three industrial sectors in terms of value of production and employment. It should also be noted that many of the industrialised countries also have significant machinery and IT support industries. This threat of competition from low labour cost countries has given rise to a number of research programs which aim to reduce labour content and help ensure consistently high quality production which can adapt rapidly to market needs.