3 ms·

What makes T-shirts and jeans more complex than other shirts and pants?

hactually 10y ago
It's the fact that they're composed of multiple differently shaped pieces and need to be combined carefully. I've tried putting a robot together myself as I find it silly that we haven't already automated it and... yeah, harder than i thought.
- chris_va 10y ago
  What was that experience like?
- inabar 10y ago
  I'm curious whether anyone's tried something like heat fusing instead of stitching for synthetic fibers. Or maybe precise gluing for natural fibers. It seems kind of like we're using robots to automate carriage making...
  - sedachv 10y ago
    Ultrasonic sewing machines have been around for decades. They are very limited in the fabrics they can work with and are mostly used for industrial textile products, disposable items, and for things that need to be waterproof, like dry bags. Gluing is used a lot for things like interfacing (stiffening collars) and hemming. You need a fairly large seam area to get good adhesion. Since the glue makes the fabric stiffer this would make the seam uncomfortable.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
kevin_thibedeau 10y ago
With denim it becomes necessary to use some persuasion to finish the thicker seams. With Jersey knits it requires skill to avoid distorting the seams during assembly. The other side is that the the sheer volume of global production for these garment makes the cost savings from automation most compelling
jxramos 10y ago
I think he's actually suggesting that of the range of textiles and fabrics that we wear that along the dimension of complexity tshirts and jeans are the simpler designs and will thus be some of the lower hanging fruit to automate. I remember reading some documentary stuff or something about fashion evolution through the centuries and stuff was a lot more ornate a few centuries back. Then things went comparatively pretty simple in the 20th century some even argued that fashion was pushed to be simple for mass production reasons.
- Animats 10y ago
  Jeans and T-shirts are so standardized and are produced in such large volumes that developing special-purpose machines for them is justified. Automatic production of everything in the September edition of Vogue is a long way off.
  - xbmcuser 10y ago
    It costs Levi's and other such brands $2-3 a few years ago for a denim Jean. The actual costs of the goods are very low packaging, marketing and retail space etc is the real expense.

It's the fact that they're composed of multiple differently shaped pieces and need to be combined carefully. I've tried putting a robot together myself as I find it silly that we haven't already automated it and... yeah, harder than i thought.

chris_va 10y ago
What was that experience like?
inabar 10y ago
I'm curious whether anyone's tried something like heat fusing instead of stitching for synthetic fibers. Or maybe precise gluing for natural fibers. It seems kind of like we're using robots to automate carriage making...
- sedachv 10y ago
  Ultrasonic sewing machines have been around for decades. They are very limited in the fabrics they can work with and are mostly used for industrial textile products, disposable items, and for things that need to be waterproof, like dry bags. Gluing is used a lot for things like interfacing (stiffening collars) and hemming. You need a fairly large seam area to get good adhesion. Since the glue makes the fabric stiffer this would make the seam uncomfortable.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

kevin_thibedeau 10y ago

With denim it becomes necessary to use some persuasion to finish the thicker seams. With Jersey knits it requires skill to avoid distorting the seams during assembly. The other side is that the the sheer volume of global production for these garment makes the cost savings from automation most compelling

jxramos 10y ago

I think he's actually suggesting that of the range of textiles and fabrics that we wear that along the dimension of complexity tshirts and jeans are the simpler designs and will thus be some of the lower hanging fruit to automate. I remember reading some documentary stuff or something about fashion evolution through the centuries and stuff was a lot more ornate a few centuries back. Then things went comparatively pretty simple in the 20th century some even argued that fashion was pushed to be simple for mass production reasons.

Animats 10y ago
Jeans and T-shirts are so standardized and are produced in such large volumes that developing special-purpose machines for them is justified. Automatic production of everything in the September edition of Vogue is a long way off.
- xbmcuser 10y ago
  It costs Levi's and other such brands $2-3 a few years ago for a denim Jean. The actual costs of the goods are very low packaging, marketing and retail space etc is the real expense.