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SEWING CONDITIONS
I. Suresh Balu
Quality Assurance Department
Patspin India Limited, Para Road,
Palakkad – 678621, Kerala.
isureshbalu@gmail.com
K. Gowri,
Lecturer,
Kumaraguru College of Technology,
Coimbatore
kgowri@gmail.com
P. Tharani
Merchandiser,
SCM Creations Ltd,
Tirupur.
senci_nathi@rediffmail.com
Introduction
Seam
A seam is a joint where a sequence of stitches unites two or more pieces of
material. According to BS3870, seam is defined as “the application of series of stitches or
stitch types to one or several thickness of the material”.
Desirable Properties of Seam
It must not be pull apart under the stresses of the service.
It must not be cockle or tight.
It must be as extensible as the fabric must or as needed by the movement
demanded of each area of the garment.
The sewing stitches must not cut the fabric, break or crack on stretching the
extent.
The seam must not be grin.
Seam Puckering
Seam puckering refers to the gathering of seam either just after sewing or
laundering causing an unacceptable seam appearance. Seam puckering is more common
on woven fabrics than knits; and it is prominent on tightly woven fabric.
In Oxford Dictionary Seam puckering referred as “a ridge, wrinkle, or corrugation
of the material or a number of small wrinkles running across in to one another, which
appear in sewing together two pieces of cloth”.
Need to Minimize Pucker
Developing a scientific method for sewing seams has becoming an important
garment manufacturing technique and now it is adopted by the high value added apparel
industry. In our country and others, clothing manufacturers have depended mostly on the
simplicity of out-of-date traditional engineering experience. Therefore adapting to a more
modern apparel industry that can improve constantly, knowledge of production
management and a scientifically based system are absolutely vital for solving the
increasing demand for quality products from the global apparel market.
Various Classes in Seam
The British standard BS3870 divides seam into 8 different classes. They are
Superimposed seam, lapped seam, bound seam, flat seam, decorative stitching, edge
neatening, Class 7 (Seams in this class relate to the addition of separate items to the edge
of a garment), Class 8 (This class involves only one piece of material)
Taguchi Concepts for Quality Engineering
Dr. Genechi Taguchi, a mechanical engineer who has won four Deming awards,
has decided to this body of knowledge. In particular he introduced the loss function
concept, which combines cost, target, and variation in to one metric with specifications
being of secondary importance. Furthermore he developed the concept of robustness,
which means that noise factors are taken in to account to ensure that the system functions
correctly. Noise factors are uncontrollable variables that can cause significant variability
in the process or the product.
Taguchi’s Concepts on Quality
The definition of quality given by Taguchi methodology is customer oriented.
Taguchi defines quality in a negative manner “Quality is the loss imparted to society
from the time the product is shipped”. This ‘loss’ would indicate the cost of customer
dissatisfaction that leads to the loss of company reputation. This differs greatly from the
traditional product oriented definition, which includes the cost of rework, scrap, warranty
and services costs as the measure of quality. The customer is the most important part of
the process line, as quality products and services ensure the future return of the customer
and hence improves reputation and increased market share. In general, there are four
quality concepts derived by Taguchi:
1. Quality should be designed into the product from the start, not by inspection and
screening
2. Quality is best achieved by minimizing the deviation from the target not a failure
to confirm to specifications.
3. Quality should not be based on the performance, features or characteristics of the
product.
4. The cost of quality should be measured as a function of product performance
variation and the losses measured system-wide.
The Taguchi Method
This method focuses on improving the fundamental function of the product or
process, thus facilitating flexible designs and concurrent engineering. Indeed, it is the
most powerful method available for reducing power costs, improving quality and
simultaneously reducing the development time. The three design components involved in
Taguchi process was shown in the Fig 1.1 where the parameter and tolerance design are
with robust technique and the system design with the traditional R&D technique.
SYSTEM DESIGN
TRADITIONAL R&D
PARAMETER DESIGN
TAGUCHI
TOLERANCE DESIGN
Seam
Puckering
All the sewing conditions were measured with specified digital device. The
objectives, various factors, and levels for carry out the work was also assigned.
needed and the cost, effort, and time taking of such kind of experiments will be quite
large. Hence the L4 Orthogonal array was used in this experiment. (Refer Table1.2)
8.687
8.275 8.014
SN Ratios
7.501 7.762
6.894 7.089
6.115 6.015 6.333
5.797
5.236
A1 A2 B1 B2 C1 C2
The parameter polled in to error parameter considering the relatively small values
of the sum of squares, indicating that their parameter do not have much influence on the
seam pucker grade of that particular fabric specimen. Where stitch density in FAB A and
Needle size in FAB B is not contributing much in seam pucker when compared with the
other parameters in this experiments.
ANOVA Test
After error pooling of the stitch density and needle size factor in both the fabrics,
we performed an ANOVA test (F-test) to determine the effects of the other factors. Refer
Table (1.6 & 1.7) for FAB A and FAB B respectively.
References:
1. AATCC Test Method 88B, Smoothness of seams in fabrics after repeated home laundering,
AATCC (1992).
2. Chang Kyu Park and Joo young Ha (2005) ‘A Process of optimizing sewing Conditions using
Taguchi method’ Textile Research Journal March 2005, pp. 245-251
3. Dale H. Besterfield, Carol Besterfield-Michna, Glen H. Besterfield and Mary Besterfield-
Scare, (2003)
4. Phillip J. Ross (1996) - ‘Taguchi Techniques for Quality Engineering’ Second Edition,
McGraw Hill International Editions.
5. S. K. Bharadwaj, NIFT, Newdelhi “Advancement of Sewing Room Technology” NCUTE,
IIT, Delhi.