Page 277 - Industrial Cutting of Textile Materials

264 Industrial Cutting of Textile Materials

16.4.5.3 Bow&Skew option

In matching pattern manually, the pattern of the fabric ply on the table firstly is cor-
rected and aligned to conform it to perfect geometry of hard pattern pieces. It is a work-
and time-consuming process. Automated pattern-matching methods provide fully new
automated tool to ease pattern matching – the original geometry of a pattern pieces is
changed instead of precise placing of the fabric ply on the cutting table. By the help of
a specialized software, the pattern pieces in the marker can be slightly shifted, rotated,
and even distorted to conform to the pattern course of the fabric ply on the table (see
Fig. 16.7). The on-screen corrections of the pattern pieces are much easier and less
time-consuming than the perfect aligning of the fabric ply on the cutting table. In case
of fully automated work process, the described corrections of initial geometry of the
pattern pieces are performed automatically by pattern-matching software.

16.5 Advantages of automated single-ply processing
methods

As it was highlighted before, processing of styles from intricate pattern fabrics is em-
barrassed by three main problems (see Section 16.2.2). Automated processing meth-
ods have found a solution to two of these problems:
1. Instead of a fabric ply structure/pattern perfection on the spreading table, the initial geom-
etry of pattern pieces is changed in accordance to imperfect pattern of the fabric ply (see
‘Bow&Skew option’ Section 16.4.5.3). By the help of appropriate software, this process is
performed much easier and faster than perfection of fabric ply structure using till now devel-
oped manual or semiautomated work methods (see Chapter 15).
2. Displacement of fabric ply/plies during the work process is avoided using automated cutters.
Their vacuum systems compress/fix the fabric on the cutting surface, while it is cut, thus
ensuring high pattern-matching and cutting accuracy (see Section 9.3.4).
The third problem can also be partly solved – the material waste because of ne-
cessity to start processing of every fabric ply at the same place of the pattern re-
peat. Pattern on digitally printed fabrics can be developed and placed on the material
precisely in accordance with the size of the processed style and its marker, thus avoid-
ing fabric waste at the beginning of the cut fabric ply.

(A) (B) (C)
Fig. 16.7 Bow&Skew option: shifting (A), rotation (B), and changing (C) of the original
geometry of the pattern piece to match it with the pattern on the digitally printed fabric.