Technology

H&H Asia Group Limited is one of the pioneers in the Seam Sealing technology. Since 1993, the company has introduced various models from economy to best of the technology. In apparel sector this technology is mostly used in Jackets. When a jacket is constructed, pieces of fabrics are usually stitched together. The stitching results in punctures in the fabric which can allow water to seep in, causing you to get wet inside the jacket. These seams can be sealed using a special waterproof seam sealing tape (referred to as tape sealing).

When seam tape is heated up, the adhesive on the tape is activated. This activated tape is applied on the water proof coating or lamination of the fabric seam under pressure. When cooled, a strong bond is formed between the tape and the seam. This bond is so strong that it will prevent pressurized water from penetrating the sewn seam. As a result, a water proof seam is produced.

A hot air machine produces hot air with precisely controlled temperature to directly heat up the adhesive of seam tape. The heated tape and the fabric are feeding into two oppositely rotating rollers under pressure. The linear speed of the rollers is called sealing speed.

During sealing, hot air is being blown out from the nozzle. The hot air that actually reaches the surface of the tape is a mixture of hot air from the nozzle and surrounding air, hence the actual temperature that appeared on the tape is somewhat lower than the nozzle temperature. The farther the distance between the nozzle and the tape, the higher the percentage of surrounding air becomes. On the other hand, a higher hot air flow rate will reduce the percentage of surrounding air causing the hot air temperature appeared on the tape to be higher. So both the nozzle position and hot air flow rate are very important factors.

So, the major factors that can affect the seam sealing are as follows:
• Hot air temperature
• Sealing speed
• Nozzle air pressure
• Air flow rate
• Nozzle position

When a consistent product is required, the combination of the above factors have to be set precisely as their effects towards a proper sealing are all interconnecting.

General types of Seam Sealing There are three terms to discuss when examining the topic of seam sealing: Fully taped seams, critically taped seams, and bonded seams. Each is distinct from one another, yet they all serve the same purpose, to keep water out.

Fully taped seam
This type of sealing involves a process where the waterproof tape is applied to each seam by using hot air machine or seam sealing machine, which completely covers the holes left by the sewing needle. Through this process, the seams become completely secure and make the garment at as water-resistant or waterproof

Bonded seams
An ultrasonic or welding technology supported by the seam reinforcement tape is used to bond the garment seams. This implies that there are no stitch holes, no straggling threads. This type of sealing does not work with every material, but most thermoplastics are weldable. Polyurethane is one such material and is commonly used by outerwear companies in their layering/sealing processes. This is why you may come across the term “thermoplastic welding.”

Critically taped seams
In this sealing process, only the critical seams are taped (areas that are most prone to cause water seepage). In most cases, these sealed seams are found commonly in the hood, around the neck and over the shoulders (areas where rain would most likely penetrate the exterior of the jacket).

India is expected to become one of the world’s fastest-growing e-tail markets, driven by robust investment in the sector and rapid increase in the number of internet users. Under government initiatives like ‘Digital India’, the internet has penetrated to 400 mnusers. The increasing spectrum of internet reach across geographies of India coupled with the corporatization of apparel sector is paving way for emergence of ecommerce as a major retail channel in the apparel category. At present, the e-commerce market is led by electronics category with a share of ~49 percent followed by apparel and lifestyle which is ~25 percent.

Among the e-tail market T-shirt is the most dominating category with estimated market size of 10,000 cr. Marketplace like Amazon, Myntra, Flipkart, Tata Cliq, etc. helps retailers and private label T-shirt brands to scale up the sales. With the growing concern over the environment, it’s no wonder that young people in India are making sustainability the latest priority. After the sustainability customization or personalization is something in which today’s generation hooked in ‘Showing off your identity through what you wear’ is all the rage.

Kornit Digital has changed the world of fashion in E-commerce space globally and now getting rage in India too with the help of Arrow Digital. Kornit digital enables print one-off customized designs or alternatively printing of the most popular design on-demand. Kornit has a range of pallets to fit any fashion top size whether for children, women or men. NeoPigment Technology prints on almost every type of fashion top fabric, from natural cotton and silk to semi-synthetic viscose, to synthetic polyester. And with discharge digital printing solution; it is easy to print amazing designs with the softest hand-feel.

Kornit developed a unique and patented printing method that integrates the pre-treatment procedure into the printing process. Unlike any other DTG printer PreT system of Kornit that is integrated into the machine automatically sprays the Kornit wetting solution and reduces the printing steps, manpower, time & gives more efficiency. Web-To-Print solution by Kornit is also help to make the E-commerce set-up more seamless. “Indian manufacturers are gradually accepting the fact that e-commerce, on-demand print, personalization is a need of an hour and with Kornit we are quite confident that soon to compete and sustain in the market traditional T-shirt print suppliers will shift to our platform,” adds Sam Patel, Director & CEO of Arrow Digital.

Technology is expanding and computers and software are playing a big role in our current life. Devices are becoming smarter using AI (Artificial intelligence) and latest development in software technology like machine learning and neural networking can make amazing results which lets a computer think like a human brain.

Recently, MAYA has started some projects to involve this smart technology into embroidery field. MAYA has taken the first step to achieve this target by starting a project called iBox (intelligent Box) which can convert an image into embroidery design using AI. iBox can optimize stitch connections almost like an expert designer. The converted design has as less trim as possible and the machine can run the design very smoothly. As we all know, many companies have worked on image into embroidery conversion, but since the quality is the main issue in this field, their conversion result has not been practically workable and it has not satisfied the designers, that is why designers prefer to digitize the design by themselves to create a high quality product, but this is also a very time consuming procedure.

Since the start of iBox project, the quality has been the main concern of MAYA software team. And in Cisma 2019, MAYA introduced the first high quality image into embroidery design conversion device to the world.

iBox contains the hardware and software together as one package, and you will just need a screen or you can even connect it to your TV at home and connect a mouse and enjoy using your creativity to make embroidery designs in few minutes.

iBox is the new generation of digitizing software and users do not need to know so many complicated functions and how to digitize a design and connect the objects, because iBox already knows how to do the job for you. iBox can now convert a design using Satin and Tatami, but MAYA plans to develop this technology and let all range of users be able to use iBox in their business.

“The technology behind this software is the Artificial Intelligence, which is totally a new approach in this field. Though there are a few software brands doing photo to embroidery but results were not practical and good enough to make a designer really happy. Wherein, in this software the result is totally practical offering very good and acceptable quality. For normal embroidery quality is the biggest issue which could be solved with this new software, which is revolutionary. When using software, a designer will take half an hour to make design which earlier used to take 10 hr to complete. We introduced this to the industry for the first time in CISMA and response has been really encouraging,” says Saeed Shekari, Software R&D Director, Maya Embroidery Machine.

iBox has four main below functions:

• Image into embroidery design (no limits in colours)

This is the most time-consuming task if a designer wants to digitize it by current digitizing softwares at the market, but using iBox it is a few minutes task with good quality. The image quality affects the result, so the image should have an acceptable quality. But for other conversions, you can use any photos. The built in editor lets the user edit the photo and special functions designed for layering the image and making the sections overlaps to compensate fabric shifting and thread pull compensation.

• Photo into single coloured designs in three styles (one colour now)
• Photo into cross stitch design (no limits in colours)
• Photo into sequin design (up to 8 colors) as well as flipping sequins

Established in the year 2000 in Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province, China, Zhuji MAYA Electric Appliance Machinery Co., Ltd. is an enterprise specialized in producing computerised multi-head embroidery machines with annual output of more than 4,000 sets high quality machines. Having advanced equipment for manufacturing and inspection as well as excellent work teams, the company commits itself to implementing the total quality control system, introducing new concept of international standard management, and continuously improving the quality of its products.