Larger than last year, the fairground was abuzz with visitors in large numbers from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia and Cambodia. After a few slow years it was heartening to see the serious visitation and the enthusiasm of the exhibitors to attend and introduce their technology. CISMA would likely remain attractive for Asian manufacturers and traders/dealers, even in the future with almost all major Chinese machine manufacturers showcasing advanced technologies, challenging the dominance of European brands.
CISMA has always been a haven for the traders, dealers and agents of various important brands of sewing machines and this year too they were present in full strength.
Many Pakistani and Bangladeshi companies showed interest in cutting room solutions, which indicate that manufacturing in these countries, is moving to the next level of growth. Companies from most other centres were found investigating options in sewing machines, clearly the focus is on upgradation and capacity building.
While Bangladeshi companies like Standard Group, Ananta, Indochine, Fashion Product and many more were busy exploring latest technologies, Sri Lanka was represented by many different companies of MAS Holdings and Brandix, for keeping tabs on the latest developments in sewing technologies.
For a further in-depth review of some more interesting technologies showcased at CISMA, read the November issue of StitchWorld.
A notable and visible difference from other exhibitions of repute was the awesome range of sewing machines, spare parts and work aids. One complete stall dedicated for this segment, speaks loudly of the depth of the Chinese sewing machine manufacturing industry today. The most important trend dominating the sewing equipment area was mechanization of quilting process. Long arm jig sewing for large area quilting operation was offered by almost 20 different known and unknown sewing machine brands where the operator does the quilting operation manually in a stand-up workstation. Some of the brands also offered more automated versions of the same by offering auto pattern sewer with jig sewing option, here movement of jig template in X and Y axis direction is controlled automatically.
Richpeace has taken the jig sewing to an ultimate level by offering multi-head auto jig quilting machine, which was undoubtedly the cynosure of the show.
CAD for pattern making, grading and marker making has already proved its mettle decades back, however paper pattern cutting still remained a manual operation using scissors. Computerized plotter cum pattern cutters have also been developed and displayed by few niche suppliers over the years, but they never became popular in the factories. This edition of CISMA saw plenty of these computerized plotters cum pattern cutters on display with variety of features to meet different scale and scope and we can hope to see some of these in our manufacturing plants in the near future.
Progressive Bundle Unit (PBU) system of sewing is gradually losing its shine to UPS system due to lack of automation in bundle handling. Quite a few unknown Chinese suppliers displayed conveyorized transportation of bundles from one sewing machine to another in a very similar setup like side table. This development really caught my attention, while reminding me of the manufacturing plant of erstwhile Hindustan Lever during 1990s in Chennai, which had a similar conveyorized material movement in sewing, even at that time. Here operators either put the bundle on the intermittent moving conveyor or in a wire meshed tray which is carried to designated operator at a pre-set pace.
Most of the readers may be unaware that one of India’s most modern shirt manufacturing units during the 90s was Stencil Apparel in the Delhi-NCR and that is where I last saw Brother’s BAS series of button sewing and buttonhole sewing indexer. Till date, button sewing and buttonhole sewing indexers are considered as capital intensive equipment even for specialized shirt manufacturing plants. The range of indexers displayed at CISMA by mid-range Chinese brands like Zoje, Hikari and Weishi is definitely an indication of the technology that will be made affordable in the near future.
Laser cutting and engraving is another area where technology has matured, and CISMA 2013 displayed an array of opportunities in laser cutting and embossing for innovative value-added applications. The trend is definitely towards flexibility of operations (like cutting as well as etching) and use of variety of materials in same machine.
Use of automats for attaching back pocket in jeans or making welt pocket for formal trouser are common; however, fully automated shirt pocket attaching workstation was not commonly used by shirt manufacturers.
The challenges of handling comparatively lightweight material, alignment of checks and stripes and not to mention the prohibitive price were the reasons behind poor adoption rate of these automats.
Both Duerkopp Adler and PFAFF displayed their offering in these areas with improved features, in the hope that manufacturers would grab the opportunity.
The overlock machine has always been the poor cousin of single needle lockstitch machine when it comes to computerized control. At CISMA 2013 the computerized overlock sewing machine made its debut where sewing speed, thread chain trimmer, presser foot lift everything was possible to program using touch screen panel. It is interesting to see that leading the pack are again the mid-range Chinese brands like Typical, Hikari, Siruba and several other unknown brands.
For years, overhead material handling systems for UPS have been dominated by Eton, INA and Smart-MRT globally; however, the CISMA 2013 painted a very different picture, as disturbing as promising. Unknown Chinese brands like Hitex, Sunrise, Clevermax, and Euratex were displaying their might alongside Eton and INA. While maximum of these brands are obvious copy of ETON or INA, the promising fact is that with their entry to markets outside China, prices are set to crash. The expiry of several patents of the brands like Eton or INA may be the inspiration for the onslaught of Chinese brands offering similar mechanisms; the impact however will be interesting to see.
Among the onslaught of major shifts in technologies, there are some small yet interesting developments that are hard to ignore and worth mentioning. Some of these are user-centric developments and displayed plentiful in Taiwanese pavilion. Although multi-needle chainstitch pintucking was common for ages, the same was generally seen in fairs only and not adopted by many factories due to complicated setup. Moreover, lockstitch pintuck is a favourite amongst buyers of ladies tops and hardly any technology was available for the same. An unknown Taiwanese manufacturer Simanco displayed an automated fully programmable lockstitch pintucking machine which can be programmed for number of pintuck, length of pintuck as well as width of pintuck to name a few features. The machine drew close attention of experts from India.
Then there was a tablet operated smart seaming solution from PFAFF where lockstitch machine setting can be done through tablets, although during demonstrations the manual buttons were found to override the tablet programs. The futuristic Vetron brands of sewing machines for heavy duty material were displayed by Typical where modularity of manufacturing is being followed while making the sewing machines. The machine head can be easily changed from single needle to double needle, and several parts are also portable between competing machine brand (Implying that similar part from competing machine brand will also fit)! The presser foot, feed dog, needle bar stroke and thread tension is individually controlled by step motor and to top these, each sewing machine access is controlled by a USB stick.
The popularity of any technology depends on the right balance of demand and supply. Automats or the specialized machineries were the USPs of select few brands in the world and probably that is the reason behind low adoption rate of automats in several areas of manufacturing. The rise of Chinese mid-range brands for offering common automats like welt pocket making, jacket sleeve attaching, button and buttonhole indexer, yoke attaching, J-stitch in jeans, etc. will ensure affordable technology to world apparel manufacturers. While the wage hike in major apparel manufacturing countries like India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is forcing manufacturers to explore de-skilling and time saving devices, the abundant supply of affordable automats will ensure better adoption rate of these new technologies amongst factories in near future.
