Predicting the tearing strength of laser engraved denim garments using a fuzzy logic approach

Abstract

This research aims to develop a fuzzy logic-based model for predicting the warp way and weft way Tearing Strength (TS) of laser engraved denim garments concerning two of the most important laser parameters such as Dots Per Inch (DPI) and Pixel Time (PT). Laser engraving is a widely used approach in garment washing factories because of its lower health hazards, time efficiency, and accuracy than other processes. However, controlling the laser parameters is very important, as if the tearing strength of the treated garments falls lower than the tolerable limit, the garment might be rejected. In this study, the fuzzy logic-based method is used to develop a prediction model to determine the Tearing Strength of the laser engraved denim. The model exhibits the exact same trend for TS as the experimental findings, i.e., TS increases with the decrement of either DPI, PT, or both. Moreover, the Mean Relative Errors (%) for warp and weft way Tearing Strength was found to be 3.34 and 3.53, respectively, which are within the acceptable limits. The coefficient of determination (R2) was found 0.98 (R = 0.99) for both the warp and weft way Tearing Strength, and the result suggested that up to 98% of total changes in warp and weft way Tearing Strength can be explained by the model. From the results, it can be evident that the principle of the proposed model can satisfactorily be used in predicting the Tearing Strength of the laser engraved denim garments, which will be beneficial for the garment washing industry by eliminating a lot of existing trial and error approach to set process parameters and thus can play an important role in increasing the productivity by process optimization.