New task for the computer: making clothes

Article Abstract:

Engineers and computer scientists at two Georgia colleges - Southern College of Technology and Georgia Institute of Technology - harness computers to industrial sewing machines, showing that garments can be produced more quickly and cheaply than is done in conventional clothing factories. The clothing industry has trailed others in integrating computers into factories, but according to William O. Mitchell, who represents the American Apparel Manufacturers Association, what these colleges are doing should be taken seriously. According to T. Dale Stewart, a research technician at Southern Tech, sewing machines had to be made more versatile, and the Georgia group has developed ways to reprogram the machines, so that each piece of computerized equipment can do many tasks instead of just one. In the future, an assembly line making many kinds of garments might be controlled by a single computer.

Colleges and universities, Research, Officials and employees, Beliefs, opinions and attitudes, Flexible manufacturing systems, Georgia Institute of Technology, column, Clothing factories, American Apparel Manufacturers Association, Southern College of Technology, Mitchell, William O.

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Keeping clothes defect-free

Article Abstract:

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are developing techniques that minimizes defective products in garment-manufacture operations. Piezoelectric sensors are used to identify problems in sewing needles and the motion of thread. Data is sent from sewing machines to a computer for analysis. If thread breaks or if a needle becomes worn or is defective, a signal alerts a machine's operator. Defects in garment-making operations can be costly. It is hoped, therefore, that the sort of technology being developed at Georgia Tech will both improve the quality of clothing and lower the cost of producing it. The research being done at Georgia Tech is part of a larger research project that is being sponsored by the United States Defense Logistics Agency. The Defense Logistics Agency both makes and purchases military uniforms.

Industrial research, Manufacturing, Product introduction, Research and Development, New Technique, Defects

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Industry group pushes for trade law changes

Article Abstract:

A coalition of apparel, textile and fiber industries desire changes in the U.S. trade laws. They specifically lobbied for filing procedure changes to expedite court cases.

TEXTILE MILL PRODUCTS, Professional organizations, Laws, regulations and rules, Political activity, Trade policy, Textile industry, International trade regulation, Commercial policy

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