GB2284619A - A method for manufacturing garments - Google Patents

Abstract

Fabric pieces for making garments are cut out with the aid of a superimposed template sheet and the pieces for forming a single garment are collated at a collating station 9, and attached to a clip suspended on a chain. Groups of clips carrying sets of garment pieces are hung on transport rails 10, 11. Each rail 10, 11 has a main rail section 15 and a plurality of work station sidings 16 on both sides of the main rail section to which hanging members are directed by switch stations 19. Fabric usage, handling efficiencies and throughput are optimised. <IMAGE>

Description

"A method for Manufacturing Garments" The invention relates to a method for manufacturing garments.

There are many different systems for cutting, sorting and stitching pieces of fabric to form a garment. Many such systems involve many different handlings of each garment piece with complicated sorting stages. Such systems have excess labour costs in view of the high level of manual handling, involve an inefficient use of space, difficulties in quality control and limitations on the number of garments which can be handled. Computer controlled automated rail handling systems are also known however such systems are generally complex and inflexible in that they are generally dedicated to manufacturing single garment types and changes from one garment type to another are complicated and involve considerable inefficiencies in lost production time.

This invention is directed towards providing an improved method for manufacturing a range of garments.

According to the invention there is provided a method for manufacturing a garment comprising the steps of: preparing a marker sheet by marking pattern pieces corresponding to a garment on the marker sheet; laying down fabric from a roll onto a cutting bed to form at least one layer of fabric on the bed; clamping the fabric in position on the cutting bed; laying the marker sheet showing the pattern pieces to be cut from the fabric on top of the uppermost fabric layer; fixing the marker sheet to the fabric; cutting out pattern pieces from the or each fabric layer; delivering the pattern pieces to a collating station; collecting pattern pieces corresponding to one garment at the collating station to form a garment set; attaching the garment set to a clip at the collating station; hanging groups of clips on a hanging member hung on a transport rail; moving the hanging member along the transport rail having a main rail section and a plurality of work station sidings; delivering the hanging member with the clip carrying garment pieces hanging thereon to a designated first work station; performing at least one operation on the garment pieces at the first work station to form a garment portion; delivering the hanging member with the clip carrying the partially completed garment from the first work station to the main rail section; and delivering the hanging member to further workstations of the transport rail to complete the garment.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention fabric is laid down from a roll of fabric to form a plurality of layers of fabric arranged in face to face relation.

In one embodiment of the invention there are at least two collating stations associated with a transport rail and the method includes the step of delivering collated garment pieces from a collating station to the associated transport rail. Typically the transport rails for the collating stations are interlinked and the method includes the step of delivering collated garment pieces and/or partially completed garments between the transport rails.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention the or each transport rail comprises a longitudinally extending main rail section and a plurality of work station sidings to each side of the main transport rail.

In one arrangement the method includes the step of performing some operations on the garment pieces and then transferring the pieces to a separate transport rail for delivery to a dedicated work station.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention the garment is or includes a trousers and the marker sheet is prepared by marking out front and back leg portions, the back leg portions having crotch-forming extensions for attachment to the front leg portions.

In one embodiment of the invention the method includes the step of attaching a work ticket to the garment pieces set at the collating station and updating the work ticket as the garment pieces pass through the work stations.

The invention also provides garments whenever produced by the method of the invention.

The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description thereof, given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1A is a plan of a marker sheet; Fig. 1B is a plan view of a modified marker sheet used in the method of the invention; and Fig. & is a plan view of a transport rail system used in the method of the invention.

n the method for manufacturing a garment according to the invention, a marker sheet is first prepared by marking pattern pieces corresponding to a garment on the sheet.

One such marker sheet which corresponds to a marking pattern for a garment including a pair of trousers is shown in Figs. 1A and 1B. It will be noted that various garment pieces including front leg pieces 2 and rear leg pieces 3 are marked out in a pattern for cutting. In the arrangement of Fig. 1A the front leg pieces 2 include crotch forming sections 2A and the rear leg portions 3 including crotch forming sections 3A. In the preferred arrangement illustrated in Fig. 1B the front leg crotch forming sections 2A are cut back and the rear leg crotch forming sections 3A are widened to include extensions 3B.

With this arrangement the usage of the fabric is optimised because there is minimum space between adjacent marking pattern pieces, the length of the fabric used is reduced and hence the usage of fabric is optimised.

The marker sheet is typically generated using a computer design system to instruct an X-Y plotter to draw a desired pattern on a marker sheet.

Fabric is then laid down from a large roll of fabric onto a cutting bed. Preferably the fabric is laid down from the roll to form a plurality of layers of fabric arranged in face to face relation in a zig-zag type pattern. The stack of layers of fabric is then clamped into position on a cutting bed and the marker sheet showing the pattern pieces to be cut from the fabric is laid on top of the uppermost fabric layer. The marker sheet is fixed to the fabric, for example, by staples to ensure accurate cutting.

Pattern pieces are then cut out from the fabric by arranging a cutting blade over the marker sheet and cutting out the pattern pieces in accordance with the markings on the marker sheet.

The cut fabric pieces are then delivered to a collating station where the pattern pieces corresponding to a single garment are readily arranged. The pattern pieces corresponding to one garment are collected from one ply to form a garment set which is directly attached to a clip at the collating station. The pieces corresponding to another garment are collected from-the following ply and hang directly on an adjacent clip. This optimises the collating and hanging operation as the garment pieces are laid in face to face relation and the step known as halving is avoided. Each clip is typically suspended on a chain and groups of clips carrying the same garment sets are hung on a hanging member which is in turn hung on a transport rail which is shown in detail in Fig. 2. In this case there are two adjacent collating stations 9 and associated transport rails 10, 11.The transport rails 10, 11 may be interlinked by a linking rail section (not shown).

Each transport rail 10, 11 comprises a generally longitudinally extending main rail section 15 and a plurality of work station sidings 16 arranged on both sides of the main rail section 15. Switch sections 19 are provided at appropriate locations along the rail to direct the hanging members hung on the transport rail 10, 11 to an appropriate work station siding 16.

In the method of the invention, the hanging member with the clip carrying garment pieces hanging thereon is delivered along the main transport rail section 15 to a designated first workstation 16 at which at least one operation is performed on the garment pieces to form a garment portion. The operation may comprises seam sewing, hemming, button-holing or the like. To optimise efficiency typically the operator at the particular work station specialises in a particular operation such as seam sewing of particular garments and when this operation is complete, the hanging member with the clip carrying the partially completed garment from the first work station is returned from the first work station to the main rail section 15 and delivered to further workstations 16 of the transport rail 9, 10 to complete the garment.

The switches 19 are operated to direct the partially completed garment to the appropriate workstation. The arrangement allows a supervisor to optimise the efficiency of each of the workstations by monitoring the flow of garments through the transport rail and delivering garment piece sets to appropriate workstations on a just-in-time basis so that the work stations are always provided with a constant supply of garment pieces for processing.

The system may be used to produce a number of different garments of different colours at the same time. Operator efficiency is optimised because operators working on a particular task become extremely skilled in that task and the efficiency and quality can be easily and effectively monitored and any necessary corrective action taken at an early stage.

Work tickets are attached to the clip carrying the garment pieces set at the collating station and as the garment pieces set travels through the various workstations, the work ticket is updated and is monitored to optimise operator efficiency and quality control.

The transport rail system also includes a link rail 20 to a separate dedicated rail system 21 which does not in this case have working station sidings but comprises one or a number of dedicated workstations for specialist working and/or training purposes. The rail 21 may also be linked in to the transport rail 11.

The invention provides a method for producing a wide range of garments, particularly workwear garments in a highly efficient manner.

The invention is not limited to the embodiments hereinbefore described, but may - be varied in both construction and detail.

Claims (10)

CLAIMS:

1. A method for manufacturing a garment comprising the steps of: preparing a marker sheet by marking pattern pieces corresponding to a garments on the marker sheet; laying down fabric from a roll onto a cutting bed to form at least one layer of fabric on the bed; clamping the fabric in position on the cutting bed; laying the marker sheet showing the pattern pieces to be cut from the fabric on top of the uppermost fabric layer; fixing the marker sheet to the fabric; cutting out pattern pieces from the or each fabric layer; delivering the pattern pieces to a collating station; collecting pattern pieces corresponding to one garment at the collating station to form a garment set; attaching the garment set to a clip at the collating station; hanging groups of clips on a hanging member hung on a transport rail;; moving the hanging member along the transport rail having a main rail section and a plurality of work station sidings; delivering the hanging member with the clip carrying garment pieces hanging thereon to a designated first work station; performing at least one operation on the garment pieces at the first work station to form a garment portion; delivering the hanging member with the clip carrying the partially completed garment from the first work station to the main rail section; and delivering the hanging member to further workstations of the transport rail to complete the garment.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein fabric is laid down from a roll of fabric to form a plurality of layers of fabric arranged in face to face relation.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein there are at least two collating stations associated with a transport rail and the method includes the step of delivering collated garment pieces from a collating station to the associated transport rail.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein the transport rails for the collating stations are interlinked and the method includes the step of delivering collated garment pieces and/or partially completed garments between the transport rails.

5. A method as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the or each transport rail comprises a longitudinally extending main rail section and a plurality of work station sidings to each side of the main transport rail.

6. A method as claimed in any preceding claim including the step of performing some operations on the garment pieces and then transferring the pieces to a separate transport rail for delivery to a dedicated work station.

7. A method as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the garment is or includes a trousers and the marker sheet is prepared by marking out front and back leg portions, the back leg portions having crotch-forming extensions for attachment to the front leg portions.

8. A method as claimed in any preceding claim including the step of attaching a work ticket to the garment pieces set at the collating station and updating the work ticket as the garment pieces pass through the work stations.

9. A method for manufacturing a garment substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the drawings.

10. Garments whenever produced by a method as claimed in any preceding claim.