Study on Fabric Compression at Seam VIS A VIS Thread Consumption at Lock Stitch 301

Abstract

The estimation of thread consumption for stitching a given lot is the prerequisite of the garment industry for inventory management especially with the introduction of the costly high-performance sewing thread. In the present study, the geometrical and statistical models are proposed for the prediction of thread consumption at lock stitch seam 301 and are generalized by considering the different types of fabrics. The statistical techniques; artificial neural network (ANN) and regression models have been proposed for estimation of the thread consumption at multilayered seam assembly of woven and nonwoven fabric blend composition stitched with lock stitch 301 seam. Afterward in order to relate thread consumption with a geometry of seam profile, a geometrical model for lock stitch seam 301 has been proposed based on a realistic elliptical profile. newlineThe effect of fabric compression on to the thread consumption also has been studies and the geometrical models are modified accordingly. Initially, the effect of fabric parameters, sewing thread fineness, and the sewing parameters on the compression of seam has been studied by Taguchi analysis. And, the regression equation has been obtained to predict the compression of fabric under a seam in terms of easily measurable parameters; fabric bulk density, fabric assembly thickness, and stitch density. Further, by considering the compression of fabric assembly under the seam, one of the basic rectangular profile based geometrical model and proposed elliptical model of thread consumption prediction for lock stitch 301 were further modified. After comparing with different geometrical models the modified thread consumption models were found to be more accurate. The compression of fabric under seam was also considered in defining the structural seam boldness and accordingly the formula for the quantitative measurement of seam boldness has been proposed. The quantitatively measured seam boldness values showed a good correlation with subjectively assessed seam boldness. newline newline