Development of Stitchless Seaming Equipment

The goal of Phase II will be to develop modular manufacturing methodology for "laser enhanced bonding" (LEB) that is scaleable, adaptable and allows evolution. Typical textile manufacturing methods required specific manufacturing steps to be treated as a cell. Whereby one cell does the cuff, one the sleeve, and another joins the two. Complex garments could require 50 steps, any one of which could fail quality control (QC). It is this complexity and cost that drive manufacturing off shore, labor means nothing. LEB promises to allow modular manufacturing means with higher throughput speeds fully automated manufacturing and higher performance seam construction. The modular manufacturing system would allow a single point of attachment. This standard drive/attachment point allows any product or component to be fixtured and seamed with no change physically to the LEB delivery machine. This system is based on an extrusion. We have quotes from several vendors with proposed delivery dates (6 to 8 weeks). This modular system allows multiple loading stations, not five ladies running 5 machines, but 5 ladies loading fixtures to feed one station allowing high throughputs and fully automated manufacturing. One single station could run circles, crotches, sleeves, and straight seams of any length with minor changes, making adaptable manufacturing to become a reality. Maximum size and production variability in piece pattern handling is a benefit of this modular system. This system will achieve instant commercial value with materials and products such as, neoprene/wetsuits, byutal rubber, bio suits, tyvek, hazmat, and protection uniforms of all kinds, just to name a few.