Last couple of years have seen the increased use of bonding technology for the comfort and better performance which is facilitated by the innovation and product development team of international brands catering to outdoor garments which include constantly growing categories like “winter garments” and “hunting garments” besides dominant sportswear. Even the shirts industry is moving towards the bonding technology because of the advantage of total flat seam without any puckering which cannot be avoided with a traditional cut and sew operation. In specialized categories such as cyclist (as professional) a bonded saddle or a bonded trouser is a big advantage.

The knit industry has a great future ahead, this can be assessed from the fact that in the first quarter of 2010, exports of men’s cotton T-shirts alone has grown 10.37% in value and 32.16% in volume from India while total US import in the same category has grown by 11.13% in value and 13.85% in volumes. The potential for growth is immense as casual wear dominates trends globally.

Going by the past records, ITMA Asia+CITME fair always offers something new. This year too it did not disappoint and received good number of visitors from not only China but also from other Asian countries. A total of 1,171 exhibitors from 28 countries and regions took part in the exhibition and the biggest contingent at the fair was China with 639 exhibitors

India is the second largest producer of footwear and accounts for 14% of global footwear production of 14.52 billion pairs with major footwear production hubs located in Agra, Chennai, Kanpur and Ludhiana. “India has a huge potential for growth in shoe manufacturing. Our research of three years suggests that Kanpur will come up as a major market for leather hides originating from USA,” testifies Chris Mullally, President, Mohawk Trading Company primarily into skin trading and also chairman of the Board for the US hide, skin and leathers association. With footwear emerging as a growth segment, the recently concluded 2nd FMM&T (Footwear Materials, Manufacturing Components & Technology) at India Expo Centre, Noida attracted many buyers. The event saw more than 180 companies exhibit varied leather footwear products and technologies. Team StitchWorld reviews some of the technologies presented at the fair.

Private shows are important for the industry as they provide a focused platform for the exhibitors and visitors to exchange in detail the technicalities of specific machines for a particular line. While the exhibitors are sure to attract a captive audience intending to use those very machines, visitors, get the opportunity to see live demos of those very machines which are exacting their requirements.

Though automation aids higher productivity and better quality, it also creates techno-phobia, a fear in the minds of the operators and mechanics regarding the flexibility and downtime. The introductory versions of automated machines had very complex settings for operators to understand and also it took substantial downtime for mechanics to repair or change settings. But not any more automated machines now display precise information connected to the problem that causes it. The functions that are aimed towards user ease include icons in the touch screen panel, multilingual support, ROM/flash memory-based diagnosis and specification setups in the machine. Team StitchWorld reviews operator-friendly automation in Vibemac, an Italian automated sewing machinery manufacturer.

Excel Stiro displayed its PERC dry cleaning machine knowing fully well that it will take some time for the Ludhiana market to mature enough to start using PERC machines, even though the company does have a few installations in Ludhiana including Nahar.

Keeping up with its commitment of bringing value to textile and garment industry, ATE Enterprises presented the Single Jersey open width circular knitting machine from Pilotelli.

The key to fabric saving, cutting room productivity, and the planning of deliveries to suit customer requirements lies to some extent on the intelligent way at converting the order into a ‘cut plan’. Most factories do not monitor their cutting room productivity which many a times lead to poor work supply. It is essential that the cutting room is intelligently managed and controlled for increased factory performance, observes Roger Thomas of Methods Apparel Consultancy.

Home Furnishing is a lucrative segment of sewn product industry which is expected to achieve 5% growth in financial year 2009-10. While sewing machine manufacturers like Kansai, Brother, Pegasus, Siruba supply specialized sewing machines for home furnishings, the specialized brands that supply equipments for this segment are Rimac and Monti (both Italy), Texpa (Germany), Jensen (Switzerland) and Automatex (Canada). Team StitchWorld put together a review of machineries and equipments for home furnishings.