Garment Panels Research Articles

Development of a 3D printing method for the textile hybrid structure

PurposeThe development of a 3D printing method for the textile hybrid structure that can both be a solution to the conventional drawbacks of 3D printing method and a step forward to a garment making industry.Design/methodology/approachA novel 3D printing method using the textile hybrid structure was developed to generate 3D object without support structures.Findings3D printing of curved panels without support structure was possible by using fabric tension and residual stress.Practical implicationsGarment panels can be 3D printed without support structures by utilizing the idea of textile hybrid structure. Garment panels are expected to be modelled and printed easily using the Garment Panel Printer (GPP) software developed in this study.Social implications3D printing method developed in the study is expected to reduce the time and material previously needed for support structures.Originality/valueComprehensive preparatory experiments were made to determine the design parameters. Various experiments were designed to test the feasibility and validity of proposed method.

Thermal behaviour of heat treated polyester knitted fabrics

PurposeThermoplastic polymer fabrics are normally heat set to make them dimensionally stable. These fabrics in garment panel form may again be exposed to heat during the processes such as bonding, sublimation printing and cause to change their dimensions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the response of polyester yarns in knitted fabrics to heat setting and post-heat treatments.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the thermal shrinkage behaviour of heat set polyester knitted fabrics when subjected to post-heat treatment processes are analyzed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and analysis of fabric shrinkage. DSC is a thermo-analytical technique that measures the difference in the amount of heat needed to increase the temperature of the sample and the reference. A heat flux versus temperature curve is one of the results of a DSC experiment. The polymer structure and morphology of polyester heat-treated and post-heat–treated fabrics were determined by examining the DSC thermograms.FindingsHeat setting and post-heat setting causes the effective temperature of polyester to change. Effective temperature occurred around 160°C for fabrics heat set at low temperatures and increases as the heat setting temperature increases. Post-heat treatments cause to elevate the effective temperature. Shrinkage of fabrics below the effective temperature is not statistically significant while the shrinkage at higher temperatures is significant. Effective temperature is the main determinant of thermal shrinkage behaviour of polyester.Originality/valueThe study reveals the significance of the effective temperature of polyester on heat treatments and post-heat treatments. The study revealed that heat-setting temperature is a primary determinant of the thermal stability of polyester fabric that are subjected to heat treatments.

Development of Tailor-Shaped Bacterial Cellulose Textile Cultivation Techniques for Zero-Waste Design

Bacterial cellulose is a sustainable biomaterial produced by Acetobacter xylinum, which has a self-synthesizing property to grow in any shape. The purpose of the study was to diagnose the current status of bacterial cellulose in textile development and produce innovative cultivation techniques in order to cater to different usages and forms of bacterial cellulose textiles for a variety of garment styles. The new tailor-shaped cultivation techniques not only improve the environmental values of this material but also further promote its production method as a sustainable practice. This organic material is able to be cultivated in any desirable garment panel shape, with no cutting and less textile waste. Two different types of tailor-shaped cultivation techniques called contacting surface-blocking cultivation and panel-shaped cultivation were developed. With the self-synthesizing property, natural biodegradable bacterial cellulose can shed light on the development of new sustainable textile materials and manufacturing practices in the future.

Direct Pattern on Loom?-An Innovative Method of Garment Construction

The impact of the fast fashion phenomenon is seen both in apparel and textile manufactures since the manufacturing time of apparels is considered as the most potential factor in reducing the overall time of the fashion cycle. In addition to the need for reduction in lead time, there is an increase in levels of quality expectations, resulting in higher cost of manufacture. Hence, in the present scenario, for high fashion garments, there is a need for technology which can minimize lead time and fabric losses, in addition to the production of garments as per the requirement of the customers in a short span of time. A DPOL (Direct Pattern on Loom) method for weaving fabric in the shape of garment panels (pieces) finished at the edges that could considerably reduce fabric loss and lead time is developed by using the electronic jacquard weaving machine. The main aim of the project is to study the feasibility of the production of Direct pattern on Loom especially on jacquard and to check the lead time required with conventional and this modern method.

Cognitive Garment Panel Design Based on BSG Representation and Matching

Previously, the fashion industry and apparel manufacturing have been applying intelligent CAD technologies with sketching interfaces to operate garment panel shapes in digital form. The authors propose a novel bi-segment graph (BSG) representation and matching approach to facilitate the searching of panel shapes for sketch-based cognitive garment design and recommendation. First in the front-tier, they provide a sketching interface for designers to input and edit the clothing panels. A panel shape is then decomposed into a sequence of connected segments and represented by the proposed BSG model to encode its intrinsic features. A new matching metric based on minimal spanning tree is also proposed to compute the similarity between two BSG models. The simulation of the resulting garment design is also visualized and returned to the user in 3D. Experiment results show the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method.

An Energy-based Flattening Technique for Woven Fabrics

The fit of garments is an important issue that concerns manufacturers, retailers and consumers with two contributory factors. One is the lack of information and standardisation in relation to the shape of the human body. The other is the craft and skill-based nature of the pattern technology function as performed in most garment manufacturers. Recent advances in body scanning technology are enabling vast amounts of data to be collected for monitoring the demographic variations in the shape of the human body. In addition, commercial software is now available to generate 3D garment specifications. However, one important function to date has not received significant attention. This is the area of generating 2D patterns from 3D design and body shape information. This paper describes work on an algorithm that attempts to generate an optimum pattern while taking into account (i) body shape data, (ii) 3D garment design data, (iii) fabric characteristics, and (iv) tailoring mechanisms for improving fit (dart and gussets) The strategy adopted in this work is to formulate an optimisation function based on flattening energy. Here, flattening energy is defined as that energy required in distorting the fabric of the 2D pattern so that it takes up a specified 3D shape. The fabric behaviour is characterised by a woven structure and the 3D shape is specified in terms of a triangulated surface. Strain constants describe the force versus strain response of the fabric for the weft and warp directions and shear. By analysing the change in geometry of individual surface triangles during the flattening process, the individual strains are evaluated. These are then converted to energy values and summed over all the triangles comprising the complete surface. Tests were conducted by designing panels with different dart configurations on a classical shape (i.e. a torus) covering both hyperbolic and elliptical curvature regions. This was then extended to a size 12 lady's mannequin. Finally, 2D flattened patterns for garment panels with different dart configurations were generated and made-up for a specific fabric. The garment was then put on the actual mannequin and the degree of fit assessed.

Virtual clothing in hybrid cellular automata

An interactive clothing system is one of the basic components of virtual reality. The clothing is implemented via design of two‐dimensional garment panels and putting the panels on an actor in a realistic way. We show how to ease this time consuming task by appealing to a hybrid cellular automaton as a parallel computing device. We draw our approach on a fact that the draping fabric bears a feature of natural parallelism. At a very short time scale behavior of any node point of a fabric depends only on the behavior of its closest neighboring node points. Therefore distant regions of the fabric can be simulated independently. Basing on the problem's natural parallelism we design two‐dimensional network of uniform locally connected hybrid automata that execute in parallel a particle model of draping behavior of clothes on a standing mannequin.

The interrelationship between fabric crease recovery and pressing performance

Creases are marks that are created and left in a fabric during garment wear. Pressing is a process to flatten garment panels and sharpen garment edges and pleats. To minimize crease, the fabric should recover after pressing without creating a creased edge. Whereas, good pressing performance means the creased edge stays sharp after pressing. Good crease recovery and pressing performance appear contradictory. However, crease recovery and pressing performance are different as creases are formed during wear and pressing is carried out using pressing equipment such as iron, pressing machines, etc. The condition, i.e. temperature and humidity, under which the creases are formed in wear and pressing are very different. The latter has much higher temperature, pressure and humidity. This paper reports on an experimental investigation on the relationship between the crease recovery and pressing performance of wool and other fabrics. It was found that there are only generally weak to moderate relationships between the crease recovery as measured by the Shirley Crease Recovery Tester and the pressing performance as measured by the Siro‐Press Tester. The characteristics of wool fabrics, which have both good crease recovery and pressing performance, are identified. This study is a step towards fabric engineering.

Feature-based reverse engineering of mannequin for garment design

This paper discusses the issues of applying feature technology to the reverse engineering a mannequin. A torso of a person is described by a cloud of points obtained from a co-ordinate measuring device. The feature model of a mannequin consists of the major features of the torso for garment design. These features are recognized from the point cloud by comparing with a generic feature model. Association is set up between the point cloud and the mannequin features. Fitting the generic feature model to the point cloud yields the mannequin feature model of a specific person. This is achieved by optimizing the distance between the point cloud and the feature surface, subject to the continuity requirements. The approach is useful in torso measurement for garment panel design.

Three-dimensional garment design and animation: A new design tool for the garment industry

Garment design is traditionally carried out in two dimensions, and some software has been developed and applied in the garment industry in the design of garment panels. In this paper, a new tool for the interactive design of garments in three dimensions is introduced. Making use of an elastic surface model, animation allows us to examine the garment design in three dimensions dynamically. The designer can use this tool to visualize his original ideas and changes interactively, and to see the garment vividly portrayed, including texture mapping on the final design, before the real cloth panels are cut. Application of this tool in the garment industry could reduce design time and costs substantially.

Interactive garment design

A method for the design of garments at a workstation is proposed. An underlying body form analogous to a trade mannequin is first represented in the computer. Garment panels are considered to be surfaces of complex shape, whose fit with respect to body form may vary over the surface. A method of easy entry of data for representing panels is proposed, whereby fit around panel edges can be defined. The problems of controlling fit in the interior of panels is considered and a scheme is proposed which accomplishes design with economy of effort from the designer.