In response to the need of technical understanding of Fabric Construction and Testing/ Inspection methodology in apparel industry, Apparel Resources, in association with SGS India, successfully organized a two-day workshop on ‘Essentials of Fabric Construction, Fabric Testing and Fabric Inspection for Apparel Industry Professionals recently at New Delhi. The event was attended by representatives from many established names from the apparel industry, including Apparel Resource (Buying House), Vishesh Overseas and Richa Global among others, as also some upcoming young players like Wear Well India. Some of the participants, all from the fabric division of their companies, were impressed with the workshop methodology and the depth of the programme.
The Technology Forum 2015 series of workshops have proved very successful under Chandrark Karekatti, Head Projects and Training, Apparel Resources, who has more than 12 years of shopfloor and consulting experience in the apparel industry of India, Bangladesh and Africa. The series of workshops have been designed to give the participants practical understanding of the subject, while suggesting techniques of improvement in various key areas, under the topic of discussion. The workshops held earlier have been on diverse subjects like Lean, TQM and TPM, held both in India and Bangladesh.
The latest in the series was on ‘Fabric’ – one of the most complicated and largest contributors to a products value. As a warm-up, Chandrak initiated the two-day session with an engaging exercise to understand basics of fabric construction. Methodology of reading the fabric sort and construction parameters was discussed in details. Participants appreciated the session on important fabric parameters and its impact in controlling overall product cost. This session was followed by hands on exercise for measuring fabric density in woven and knitted structures using pick glass with detailing on how it affects processing performance and end use behaviour. Participants were also explained the difference between woven the and the knitted structure and different fabric weaves, and how they affect finished garment properties. Though the participants were hardcore professionals, they thoroughly enjoyed the exercise on shopfloor identification of fibres, using burn and simple chemical tests. The second half of the first day concentrated on understanding the process of spinning, yarn count and ticket number calculations and four-point inspection systems for fabric inspection.
For real time exposure to ‘quality’ in fabric, day 2 of the workshop was dedicated to understanding testing and inspection procedures at SGS India at their most modern lab in Gurgaon. The session started by introducing the participants on ‘Importance of Testing’ to control the product quality at input and output stages. Important fabric properties such as tensile properties, colour fastness, dimensional change, and fibre identification, including specialty fibres like Modal, Lyocell, and Cupra etc. were covered. In addition to this US Regulatory Requirements such as 16CFR 1610, flammability/small parts/ sharp point/sharp edges as per CPSIA were also discussed in detail at the session. The classroom training module was supplemented with various training videos which were run throughout the session. These served as a visual aid to increase understanding on the performance of the textile materials when subjected to different test conditions. Availability of laboratory facility on-site made the session more engaging as the participants got a chance to visit the laboratory and see the tests being performed using state-of-the-art equipment. Case Studies shared by SGS Technical Manager, Shivendra Parmar, M. Tech in Textile Technology, was the key highlight of the session which helped the industry participants in addressing their problems such as pilling viscose fabric/odour during storage and acidic pH issues etc.
After an exhaustive and educative two days, Training Certificates were distributed to the participants by Monika Sharma, Director – Consumer Testing Services, SGS India Pvt. Ltd. along with workshop lead Chandrark. Many participants requested for holding further such sessions, and Apparel Resources is looking into how to take the concept forward with greater value.
