AUTOMATED MANIPULATION OF FLEXIBLE MATERIALS FOR SEWING

Objective

It is proposed to develop an automated tracking and handling system for the sewing of two-dimensional flexible material-sheets into three-dimensional end-products.The techniques to be studied can be applied to the manufacture of a wide variety of sewn products made from porous and non-porous flexible materials.To focus the research the project will concentrate primarily on garment manufacture, with additional studies in the area of 'soft-play' toys made from non-porous PVC coated fabrics.This project is being led by industry in the form of two end users and a sewing machine manufacturer.

The aim of the project is to make an important step towards the development of 'intelligent'sewing-stations.The proposed research is a necessary step for computer integrated manufacturing in the making-up industry.A prototype demonstrator system will be built, installed and tested on the side of a leading garment manufacturer. The basic approach consists of a combination of three ideas:

1) Printing of an invisible and precise reference pattern on a sheet of material.

2) On-line tracking of the position, deformation, deformation, and speed of the reference pattern by a real time computer image analysis system using novel near infra-red vision systems.

3) Feed-back of the information from the image analysis system to robotic devices for the manipulation of the sheet material, achieving the correct presentation of the material to a standard sewing-head.

Three tasks of increasing complexity will be chosen to demonstrate the flexibility of the system.Two of the tasks will be taken from garment manufacture and one from the soft-play toy area.These will cover two part straight seams, two part curved seams and three part straight seams.

Programme(s)

• FP3-BRITE/EURAM 2 - Specific programme (EEC) of research and technological development in the field of industrial and materials technologies, 1990-1994

Topic(s)

• 2.2.1 - Tools, techniques and systems for high quality manufacturing

Call for proposal

Data not available

Funding Scheme

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinator

BRANDTEX A/S

Address

Nordlundvej,1
7330 Brande
Denmark

Participants (8)

Boing Creative Solutions

United Kingdom

Address

The Old Malthouse Little Anne Street
BS2 9EB Bristol

CENTEXBEL

Belgium

Address

Technologiepark-zwijnaarde 7
9052 Zwijnaarde

COSURVEY OPTICS

Belgium

Address

Kleinberchemstraat 34
1080 Brussels

HELGECO SA

Greece

Address

I. Metaxa 8
17343 Athens

IFS Systemtechnik GmbH

Germany

Address

Wilhelmshöher Straße 9
12161 Berlin

METHOD IRA LTD

Greece

Address

P. Tsaldari 19-21
15562 Cholargos

Rimoldi Srl

Italy

Address

Via Montebello 33 Olcella Di Busto Garolfo
20020 Milano

Links

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

United Kingdom

Address

University Walk
BS8 1TW Bristol, Clifton