FLEXIBLE MATERIAL TRANSPORT SYSTEM

Abstract

A flexible material transport system for fabric and a system for continuous fabric workflow is presented. The flexible material transport system comprises a printing machine, a material web transporter connected to the printing machine, a material accumulator connected to the material web transporter, and a cutting machine connected to the material accumulator, wherein the material accumulator is configured to feed printed fabric from the material web transporter into the cutting machine, and wherein the material web transporter comprises a plurality of rollers configured to control movement of the fabric from the printing machine to the material accumulator and onto the cutting machine. The system can also comprise a heater and/or an image scanner. The system for continuous fabric workflow comprises two or more of the flexible material transport systems. Information regarding the fabric can be tracked for local or centralized reporting and additional data processing.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The invention relates to systems and methods for the automated production of garments. More specifically, the invention relates to systems and methods for the automated production of garments featuring a flexible material transport system establishing continuous flow of material from a printer to a cutter without requiring manual intervention. The continuous print-to-cut system utilizes a continuous digital workflow which allows for mass production of plain or printed garment fabrics, or on-demand print-to-cut of pre-printed patterned fabrics.

Description of the Related Art

Garment manufacturing involves many processing steps, beginning with an idea or design concept and ending with a finished product. The garment manufacturing process involves product design, customization/alteration and fit, pattern making, fabric selection, marker marking, spreading, cutting, sewing, ironing, quality control, inventory management, and product distribution.

Garment factories receive fabric from textile manufacturers in large bolts. Many garment manufacturers perform quality assurance upon receipt of the fabric to ensure that the quality of the fabric meets customer standards. This step is performed by manually spot-checking each bolt of fabric using a backlit surface to identify textile defects such as color inconsistency or flaws in the material. Defects are marked and circumvented in later operations. Fabrics that fail to meet customer standards and are unusable are returned to the textile manufacturer.

After the fabric has been accepted, it is transferred to the spreading and cutting area of the garment manufacturing facility. The fabric is spread either manually or using a computer-controlled system in preparation for the cutting process. The fabric is spread to: allow operators to identify fabric defects; release the tension and stress in the fabric; and ensure each ply is accurately aligned on top of the others in preparation for multi-ply cutting.

The number of plies in each spread is dependent on the fabric type and cutting equipment, and size of the garment order.

Next, pre-printed garment patterns or markers are laid out on top of the spread for manual cutting or programmed into a control computer for automated cutting. Lastly, the fabric is cut to the shape of the garment patterns using either manually operated cutting equipment or a computerized cutting system.

Screen printing occurs when specified by the customer. Screen printing may be requested to put logos or other graphics on garments or to print brand and size information in place of affixing tags. This process may have varying levels of automation or may largely be completed at manually operated stations.

Garments are then sewn in an assembly line, with the garment becoming complete as it progresses down the sewing line. Sewing machine operators receive a bundle of cut fabric and repeatedly sew the same portion of the garment, passing that completed portion to the next operator. For example, the first operator may sew the collar to the body of the garment and the next operator may sew a sleeve to the body. Quality assurance is performed at the end of the sewing line to ensure that the garment has been properly assembled and that no manufacturing defects exist. When needed, the garment will be reworked or mended at designated sewing stations. This labor-intensive process progressively transforms pieces of cut fabric into finished garments. Care, content and country of origin labels must be sewn into the garment during construction or printed on the garment.

After a garment is fully sewn and assembled, it is transferred to the ironing section of the facility for final pressing. Each ironing station consists of an iron and an ironing platform. The irons are similar looking to residential models but have steam supplied by an on-site boiler. Workers control the steam with foot pedals and the steam is delivered via overhead hoses directly to the iron. In most facilities, the ironing platforms are equipped with a ventilation system that draws steam through the ironing table and exhausts it outside the factory.

In the last steps of making a finished product, garments are folded, tagged, sized, and packaged according to customer specifications. Also, garments may be placed in protective plastic bags, either manually or using an automated system, to ensure that the material stays clean and pressed during shipping. Lastly, garments may be placed in cardboard boxes or hung on hangers and shipped to intermediary warehouses or directly to customers.

Accordingly, traditional legacy garment manufacture requires many discrete stages and manual intervention throughout the process. Production of fabrics including, rotary screen printing as well as weaving and knitting of fabrics are manufacturing process steps traditionally performed in facilities specializing in these production methods, more often than not taking place remotely from the facility performing the garment cutting and sewing functions. Generally, after fabric is produced and/or printed, it returns to a completed roll or bolt, which then must be transferred to a different locale and installed on separate machines for aligning and cutting of the same. The dynamic of the garment manufacturing process is changing with the advent of online technologies and digital fabric printing which offers an affordable means to produce printed material on-site in the same production facility that cuts and sews the finished product. However, digital fabric printers are still set up to output rolled imaged fabric and the rolls must be manually removed from the printer and physically moved to the spreading or feeding device just ahead of the cutter regardless of where they were produced. The prior known systems also require printing of a partial or complete roll of material in a given pattern without knowledge of, or reliance on, the final shape of the parts to be cut. This naturally leads to wasted material which has been printed in a given pattern in excess of the material needed.

Therefore, a more integrated and efficient manufacturing process is needed to turn a customer's desired garment design into a finished garment. The efficiency of the manufacturing process can be significantly improved if the output from a garment printer can be automatically and continuously accumulated, aligned, and directed into a cutting machine without requiring manual intervention. This will not only speed up the overall process but also allow material printing and cutting of any shape or size on demand and without requiring an entire roll to be printed before the cutting process can be initiated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a flexible material transport system (hereinafter referred to as the “Garment System”) for continuous printing and cutting of material. The present invention Garment System eliminates the ordinarily intermediate step of rolling material following the printing, fixing, or heating process, and then manually inputting the material into a separate feeding or spreading device and cutting machine to align and cut the material. The invention also includes the continued tracking of information about the garment made from the initial roll to print to the finished garment. The invention thus comprises a system and method for directly feeding printed material into a cutter while ensuring that the material is both properly aligned and provided with the proper tension to enter the cutter at the proper rate. Instead of a traditional winder to roll material following the printing process, the present invention comprises a web path and traction drive roll to provide the same tension and material transport through the printer as if winding, but with the benefit of passing the material web directly to the downstream cutter, while ensuring that production data is tracked and not lost along the way.

The Garment System preferably comprises a printing machine, a material web transporter connected at a first end to the printing machine, a material accumulator connected at a first end to a second end of the material web transporter, and a cutting machine connected to a second end of the material accumulator, wherein the material accumulator is configured to feed printed fabric from the material web transporter into the cutting machine, and wherein the material web transporter comprises a plurality of rollers configured to control movement of the fabric from the printing machine to the material accumulator and onto the cutting machine. The system can also comprise a heater and/or an image scanner, as well as various sensors to track information and report it back to a central data storage.

The Garment System may incorporate a material web transporter and material accumulator to manage and compensate for different web speeds between the printing and cutting processes. The Garment System may feature several fixed rollers and movable rollers, together providing a complex material path from the printer to the cutter. Preferably, one or more of the rollers in the accumulator is configured to move, preferably vertically while remaining horizontally constant with respect to the other rollers, to buffer and keep constant tension on the material so that the tension at which the material leaves the printer matches the tension at which it enters the cutter. This will ensure that the material remains uniformly aligned and tensioned while moving through the printing and cutting process. Buffering the material to maintain speed and tension of the material also ensures that the material does not bunch up at the cutter and also does not pull successive material through the printer and adversely impact the printing process. At least one of the movable rollers can comprise a dancer bar which uses its own weight to tension material is it either flops down or pulls up, depending on the discrepancy in speeds, and can be hinged on one end. Preferably, the rollers also comprise a high-friction material to improve traction of the material along the process. The dancer bar can also be machine-controlled to maintain a desired tension throughout the material transport process.

The Garment System therefore allows one or more pieces of material to be printed, sized, and cut on demand directly from the printer in a connected fashion, as it does not require an entire roll of material or any portion of a roll to be printed before being physically transferred to the cutter. In one embodiment of the invention, a Garment System provides automated end-to-end production of garments based upon customer preferences. In another embodiment of the invention, a Garment System is provided that uses machine vision to generate a cut file on the fly from the printer. In another embodiment of the invention, a Garment System includes a material web transporter between the printer and the cutter to modulate speed differences between the two processes and to maintain a pre-set tension for the fabric entering the cutting machine.

In yet another embodiment, a system for continuous fabric workflow is presented which comprises two or more of the flexible material transport systems connected—physically and/or electronically—to one another by a control system to create a micro-factory of on-demand printing of different fabrics. Information can be tracked along the workflow for local or centralized reporting.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the invention are apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a first half of the end-to-end garment manufacturing in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a second half of the end-to-end garment manufacturing in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a garment printer and cutter in a scan-to-cut operation;

FIG. 4 illustrates a garment printer and cutter with a material accumulator located there-between;

FIG. 5 illustrates a traditional garment printer system;

FIG. 6 illustrates a preferred embodiment of flexible material transport system in accordance with the present invention, connecting a traditional printer system to a material accumulator and cutter;

FIG. 7 illustrates the material transport path of the flexible material transport system seen in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram showing the movement of material through the flexible material transport system in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 9A-9C illustrate the material accumulator component of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is an illustration of reversible dress that has been printed on both sides of the fabric;

FIG. 11 is an illustration of a circular line configuration of machine operators in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 12 is an illustration of three circular line configurations of machine operators matched to a single printer and cutter combination in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

It will be appreciated that Garment System in accordance with the preset invention facilitates efficient and comprehensive end-to-end management of the garment manufacturing process. FIGS. 1 and 2 show such end-to-end garment manufacturing under the direction of the present invention Garment System. As shown, a customer may order a particular type of garment, defined below, based on numerous options such as the category, silhouette, size, color, and other details. Then the Garment System will coordinate and monitor every facet of the manufacturing process, including printing, cutting, sewing, and finishing. For avoidance of doubt, the term “printing” shall include 3D printing.

As used herein, the term “garment” is used in its broadest sense and is intended to include not only apparel but also to include any flexible material. In the art, garment manufacturing often utilizes weaving looms, knitting machines that produce plain and printed fabrics, printers that print patterns, colors, and other marks on fabric that may be used in manufacturing and information tracking. Garment manufacturing also often utilizes cutters that cut based on previously entered information.

In FIG. 3, a printer 20 is directly connected to a cutter 77, wherein a desired pattern is printed on fabric 10 and cut directly, or with minimal delay, without the need to inventory, locate, mount, feed, and calibrate a pre-printed material on to the cutter. Such embodiment may utilize an image scanner 320 that scans the printed pattern and directs the cutter 77 to cut based on the contrast between the white background and a perimeter line drawn around the printed pattern on the fabric. Such embodiment would differ from traditional automated cutters, which scan for and cut based on pre-established registration marks. Accordingly, the preferred embodiment of this invention would thus be able to cut or generate the cut file on the fly directly from the printer. The preferred embodiment may alternatively utilize registration marks and/or an overhead or carriage-mounted camera that accomplish such scan-to-cut operation.

The printer 20 may print color, images, and/or patterns that are incorporated into garment 10 based on its design and other indicia that are used during the manufacturing process. For example, the printer 20 may print QR or bar codes or color coding on the fabric in areas that are not visibly incorporated into a garment but are used by an online development environment of the present invention Garment System to gather various information about the garment and aid in the manufacturing process. For example, the printer 20 may add orange tags on fabrics to indicate that those parts are to be assembled together when scanned by scanner 320 into the online development environment. The Garment System may then direct such parts to be grouped together and processed in an organized manner. Alternatively, the tags may be used by machine operators or robots to deliver particular parts to a specific destination. Printed notation indicia may be printed in the non-visible areas of the garment part to stay with the garment part throughout the manufacturing process.

A preferred embodiment of this invention would allow for printing with printed fabric or material directly connected to a computer controlled cutter 77 to enable a continuous workflow with cutting directly following printing. In some instances, the cutter may require sufficient length of fabric before complex or elongated patterns can be cut. For example, cutting three hundred petals of three-inch diameter flowers would require considerably longer time to process than cutting a dress with large dimension panels. As shown in FIG. 4, an embodiment may thus include an accumulator between the printer 20 and cutter 77 that accumulates fabric. The material web transporter may include a series of rollers that hang the fabric exiting from the printer before entering the cutter. In such a configuration, the accumulator functions as a buffer to modulate any potential difference in speed between the printer and cutter. It may be appreciated that the material web transporter of the Garment System preferably measures the length of the fabric from the printer and directs the cutter to begin cutting complex or elongated patterns only when sufficient length of fabric is accumulated in the accumulator. The Garment System may alternatively direct the printer 20 and/or cutter 77 to proceed at a faster or slower speed, so that the cutter and printer combination can manufacture garment in a continuous manner or in a planned throughput based on a factory and/or group sewing capacity thus keeping in-process inventory to a minimum.

FIG. 5 shows a traditional garment printer Garment System 20 consisting of three parts: the printer, heater, and winder. As shown, the printer accepts a supply roll of fabric and prints a desired pattern. The heater heats the fabric and sets the inked pattern. Then, the winder winds the fabric with the printed pattern in a new roll, maintaining tension in the output from the printer/heater. The winder typically includes a plurality of fixed and movable rollers, resulting in a complex material path to ensure a constant web tension. Such traditional printer requires the output with the printed pattern to be rolled and arranged, before it can be moved and fed into a garment cutter located elsewhere.

In contrast, FIGS. 6, 7, and 9A-9C show a preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein a garment printer is directly connected to a cutter so that material can seamlessly and continuously move from printing to cutting without the manual intervention or completing a roll of printed material and the added intermediate step of repositioning the roll of material on the cutter. As a result, a desired pattern is printed on fabric, in a web of garment instead of a roll, and cut immediately or with minimal delay in a continuous workflow. The material path of the present invention can be seen in FIG. 6. It may be appreciated that such system and/method obviates the need for additional storage, labor and process time to move the roll from the printer and the equipment to feed or spread the material into the cutter to manage printer roller material output, saving both time and resources in the garment manufacturing process.

As seen in the Figures, particularly FIGS. 6 and 8, the present invention provides a flexible material transport system 15 which replaces a traditional winder of printer system 25 seen in FIG. 5, that results in a completed roll of material (as seen in FIG. 1), with a material web transporter 200 and material accumulator 310 which feed the printed material directly into a cutting machine 77. As seen in FIGS. 7-8, the material web transporter 200 following the printing process may include a series of rollers 210, 220, 230, 240, 250, and 260 that hang, control, and move the fabric exiting the printer 20 through to the material accumulator 310 and the cutter 77. It will be appreciated that the set of rollers of the material web transporter seen in FIG. 7 connect the printer 20 seen in FIG. 6 and the material accumulator 310 as seen in FIGS. 9A-9C. It is envisioned that in another embodiment, the material web transporter 200 may be combined with the material accumulator 310 into a single unit, such that the material accumulator 310 connects to the printer 20 and the cutting machine 77, and comprises the series of rollers 210, 220, 230, 240, 250, and 260.

Upon movement of the material through the material web transporter 200, the material accumulator 310 acts as a buffer to modulate any potential difference in speed between the printer and cutter. It may be appreciated that the present invention measures the length of the fabric from the printer and directs the cutter to begin cutting complex or elongated patterns only when sufficient length of fabric is accumulated in the accumulator. The present invention may alternatively direct the printer and/or cutter to proceed at a faster or slower speed, so that the cutter and printer combination can manufacture garment in a continuous manner or in a planned throughput based on a factory and/or group sewing capacity thus keeping in-process inventory to a minimum. In an alternate embodiment, the tension-maintaining function of the material transport system is built into the accumulator eliminating the need for two separate devices.

More specifically, the material web transporter 200 comprising a set of rollers 400, 410, 420, 430, 440 designed to create traction for properly tensioned material path for the material transport from printer to cutter. It is envisioned that any number of rollers can be provided in the material web transporter 200 and the embodiment seen in FIGS. 5A-5C is non-limiting. Preferably, one or more of the rollers 400, 410, 420, 430, 440 is configured to move vertically, while preferably remaining at a constant horizontal distance from the other rollers, to control the material movement at the output side of the printer. The plurality of rollers work together with at least one of the plurality of rollers capable of moving along with the speed, weight, and tension of the material. One or more of the rollers 400, 410, 420, 430, 440 can comprise a dancer bar which uses its own weight to tension material, and can be machine-controlled to maintain a desired tension of the fabric before entering the cutter 77. Alternatively, tension can be maintained passively through gravity by allowing a lower tube to drop as material is fed into the accumulator or opposing rollers may be actively separated under motor control. As material 10 comes faster off of the printer than it heads into the cutter, excess material will be stored in the accumulator. Conversely, if the material is entering the cutter faster than it leaves the printer, the material will be released from its stored position in the accumulator and held at a constant tension to prevent it from being pulled by the cutter out of the printer and impacting the printing process. Counterweights may be included for adjusting the dancer bar in the case of an active controlled accumulator. Of course, it is envisioned that the one or more movable rollers can be configured to move in any and all directions and be hinged on a roller joint to allow free movement.

The accumulator 310 acts as a buffer between the printer 20 and the cutter 77 by providing a means to hold and accumulate material 10 after the printing process and before cutting is initiated, given that printing may be continuous while cutting is done periodically (e.g., once enough material has been printed). The accumulator 310 can also compensate for the rate of speed at which material 10 comes off the printer 20 and the rate at which it enters the cutter 77. More specifically, the accumulator 310 is designed to prevent the cutter 77 from advancing without sufficient material 10 available from the printer 20, eliminating the possibility that the cutter 77 pulls material 10 directly from the printer 20 at a rate higher than that which the printer 20 is capable of printing, thereby causing an undesired spike in tension. The accumulator 310 communications physically and electronically with the material web transporter 200 to move the moveable roller(s) and pass the material 10 there-through until a sufficient amount of material is ready for passage to the cutter 77. The accumulator 310 can also sense the length of material accumulated to signal the printer 20 to slow down or stop in the case where the cutting function vs. printing is too greatly mismatched due to complex cutting geometries or in case of a tool change. This ensures that the material 10 is available and both properly aligned and provided with the proper tension to enter the cutter 77 at the proper rate so that the material does not bunch up at the cutter 77 and does not pull the successive material through the printer 20 and ruin the printing process. The accumulator 310 also allows on-demand cutting separate from the connected printer for material either previously printed and removed from the printer, or printed on another printer. This eliminates unnecessary printing if printed material already exists, and allows for on-demand cutting and on-demand sewing, irrespective of where or if the material was printed.

As seen in FIG. 8, the printer is directly connected to a cutter, wherein a desired pattern is printed on fabric and cut immediately, or with minimal delay. Such embodiment may utilize a heater 300 to set the ink pattern on the fabric, and/or an image scanner 320 that scans the printed pattern and directs the cutter to cut based on the contrast between the white background and a perimeter line surrounding the printed pattern on the fabric. Such embodiment would differ from traditional garment cutters, which scan for and cut based on pre-established registration marks. Accordingly, the preferred embodiment of this invention would thus be able to cut or generate the cut file on the fly directly from the printer. The preferred embodiment may alternatively utilize registration marks and/or an overhead camera that accomplish such scan-to-cut operation.

In this way, the intermediate manual input step of moving a roll of printed material onto a cutting machine, and re-aligning the same, is eliminated, as the present invention Garment System allows the material to continue along the printing process and directly into the cutter, maintaining tension and proper alignment throughout the entire roll of material.

In one embodiment, a printer and a cutter may be paired to manufacture a garment from multiple fabrics. As an example, a garment may call for a body of one fabric and another type of fabric for the sleeves. Alternatively, panels within a dress may be made of different types of fabrics. A preferred embodiment of this invention would utilize multiple printers and cutters to manufacture a garment, with each printer and cutter combination responsible for each type of fabric. Alternatively, a single cutter may service multiple cutters. The present invention Garment System can connect all components of the manufacturing process and steer orders or components between micro factories based on workload, geographical preference, material locale, equipment loading, or the like. The latter arrangement would be especially beneficial in a high volume manufacturing process, as printers may require calibration each time a different material is switched out and they print on different types of fabrics. Accordingly, the latter arrangement would save the time that may be spent to switch out each fabric and calibrate the printer. The Garment System may then gather data in relation to the manufacturing process and coordinate different aspects. For example, the Garment System may direct cut garments and garment parts from different types of fabrics to be sent to a processing station with the use of QR or bar codes noted above. Additionally, it may detect a back log of uncut fabric and coordinate a cutter to work faster or with less delay.

In yet another embodiment, multiple printers, each responsible for a different type of fabric, may be connected to a single cutter. The Garment System may coordinate which fabric from which printer is processed through the cutter in a preferred order, in order to maximize the speed of the manufacturing process. Information along the process will be tracked and made available for local or centralized reporting and additional data processing. As shown in FIG. 1010, printers may print on both sides of the fabric, to manufacture a reversible garment 90. The Garment System may direct the printer and/or machine operators to arrange for double sided printing and other potential changes to the cutter, if necessary.

In yet a further embodiment, the Garment System is configured connect multiple individual print-to-cut subsystems, each responsible for a specific fabric printing and cutting. Multiple individual print-to-cut subsystems can be connected, both physically and electronically, and controlled by a control system on a computer or mobile device with processor, to allow for instructions to be transmitted between sub-systems for moving fabric from a printer of a first sub-system to a cutter of a second sub-system when needed, or to instruct new printing and cutting of a particular amount of material in a first sub-system based on an existing printed and cut amount of corresponding and complementary material from a second sub-system to complete a requested order. The control system can include automated instructions for operating each of the continuous print-to-cut sub-systems, and can be run through manual input with on-demand instructions when a change to the process is needed, as set forth in the example above.

In addition to garments and garment parts that are printed and cut, the Garment System may track and coordinate processing of garments that are not printed. For example, there may be linings or other elements that are provided from other sources in manufacturing. Such garments may carry sewn or stamped tags that the online development environment of the Garment System may track and, for example, be put in the cutter without first going through the printer. The Garment System can digitally monitor the use of such garments and garment parts in manufacturing, the same way it tracks garments out of the printer and cutter arrangement discussed above.

Additionally, the Garment System may direct printing of garments without any need for cutting. With the advent of 3D printing, it is now possible to print garments, filament by filament, in the form of a desired apparel or part of apparel. The Garment System may even allow direct connection between the design program and the printer, so that a designers can request printing of their CAD designs at the manufacturing site without any intermediary.

As the Garment System monitors the overall cutting and printing processes, it may also monitor components of printer and/or cutter for workflow and utilization. For example, the Garment System may receive various data from a cutter, such as temperatures, pressures, forces, and angles. If the Garment System detects too much vibration or unusual increase in temperature, it may direct the cutter to take necessary actions, such as reduce the rate of cutting, or provide alerts. It may be appreciated that such detection and alert may preempt any actual interruption in manufacturing. For example, a call to replace or perform preventative maintenance on a motor would minimize downtime that may result from an actually broken motor. Additional communication may include the Garment System communicating with an e-commerce or other electronic system to dispatch spare parts and/or consumables required by machines that are part of the Garment System.

The Garment System may be operated from a local computer and/or server at a manufacturing site, or preferably operated with the use of cloud computing and artificial intelligence (“AI”) technology. In the latter arrangement, the Garment System may not only collect data along the manufacturing process and provide directions, but also apply machine learning to optimize the manufacturing process and/or make recommendations to consumers, designers, and manufacturers along the supply chain. For example, the Digital Garment System may determine an efficient manner of manufacturing a dress from a specific type of fabric. Then, it can make recommendations for future dress manufacturing, such as what types of print-to-cut arrangement work efficiently, what supplies are available, how to reroute production if necessary, and how much cost could be attached to types of garments and manufacturing processes. The Garment System may also be used to learn and provide information that are not directly utilized in manufacturing. For example, the Digital Garment System may determine from the genealogy of garments that have been previously manufactured what kind of sustainability information is attached to the type of fabric, what causes allergies and other issues, and where and when the garment was created. The Garment System may even suggest new designs and manufacturing options based on certain consumer trends for the manufacturer or recommend certain style for a particular consumer based on previous orders.

It should be noted that the input device for the Garment System of the present invention is not particularly limited, and may utilize voice and/or image recognition. As an example, the Garment System may steer a consumer to a particular design or brand based on images the consumer provides, prior order history, or other related metadata pertaining to the specific customer. In yet another embodiment, the Garment System may operate in a hybrid configuration of local and cloud, such as Edge Computing. In such configuration, the Garment System may be stored and operated from a local computer, which synchronizes with central data server or cloud at a predetermined frequency.

It may be appreciated that the Garment System could be utilized to monitor and optimize productivities of multiple manufacturing sites. As an example, the Garment System may detect that printers and cutters at one manufacturing site are not manufacturing garments at an optimized rate. This may include multiple cutters or manufacturing equipment from different suppliers and in different regions that are all linked into a “production system” as part of a multi-sided marketplace. While the Garment System makes or recommends appropriate changes, it can also arrange for switching to a different manufacturing site within the next day or even instantaneously. Additionally, the Garment System may acknowledge that a particular cutter is down for maintenance and send the work to a different machine or a different manufacturing site temporarily. Benefits of such flexible optimization would grow as more and more manufacturing sites are managed by the Garment System and as order volume increases. For example, the Garment System responsible for dozens of manufacturing sites and millions of orders coming in everyday may direct manufacturing to a site with greater capacity or supplies or to a site that is closest to the end consumer. The Garment System may offer such arrangement as a purchasable option to the end consumer, who is willing to pay additional costs to have her work finished ahead of schedule at a manufacturing site that is available.

It bears repeating that the Garment System may track the garment genealogy with the use of printed information, such as QR or bar codes or color coding. Such markers can be printed on the parts of the fabric that does not become a garment, such as the edge of or margin the garment, or printed with invisible means such as UV reflective paint. The printer may print the date and location of printing, the name of the end customer, manufacturing instructions, and any other information that may be used by the Garment System to track the garment's genealogy. The Garment System may also be used to provide ongoing updates to end customers of the garment about the state and genealogy of their order and garment throughout the process.

It may be appreciated that the aforementioned printers and cutters can be arranged so that the cut garments and garment parts can be processed by machine operators or robots in an efficient manner, such as a circular line configuration as shown in FIG. 11. The machine operators or robots, for example, could fuse garments and garment parts by sewing using multiple machines in the circular line, which could use stand-up tables such as sewing tables offered by SoftWear Automation, at http://softwearautomation.com/ (last viewed Aug. 27, 2019). Workflow can go forward and backward, or across the circle if necessary, with minimal travel time. The key to maximizing efficiency in the circular line is that the operator or robot can move forward with a single garment in the circle to the next required machine to complete the operation sequence of that garment until blocked by another operator/robot already utilizing that machine. At that point the operator/robot can leave the garment at the next machine required for another operator/robot to assume the work and will move to another location in the circle to an available machine that has a garment that is the most complete in its required operation sequence. It is possible that the manufacturing process may be complete or still in progress (e.g., the fabric has been printed and cut but still requires sewing). The purpose here is to ensure the least amount of work-in-process in the circle line path at any given time. If there isn't a garment in the circle requiring completion, the operator/robot can collect the printed and cut fabric and begin sewing a new garment from the cut parts. Multiple circular lines can be matched to a single printer-cutter combination as shown in FIG. 12. It may be appreciated that printed and cut garments are delivered to each circular lines by the machine operators or by robots under the control of the Garment System, which then can distribute garments to an appropriate and available circle line process for sewing and completion. For example, the combination of three circular lines seen in FIG. 12 combine to produce 357 dresses per day (119 per circular line)—which can be made from six or seven 50-yard rolls of fabric—by utilizing the system set forth in FIG. 11 by which an operator or robot can move forward with a single garment in the circle to the next required machine to complete the operation sequence of that garment until blocked by another operator/robot already utilizing that machine, and then move on to another location in the circle line for an available machine. This ensures continuous operation without delays. With the organization and efficiency provided by the Garment System discussed above, the machine operators would require minimal time to finish the manufacturing process.

While the invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications will be appreciated by those skilled in the art to adapt a particular teaching of the invention without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A flexible material transport system for fabric, the system comprising: a printing machine;a material web transporter connected at a first end to the printing machine;a material accumulator connected at a first end to a second end of the material web transporter; anda cutting machine connected to a second end of the material accumulator;wherein the material accumulator is configured to feed printed fabric from the material web transporter into the cutting machine; andwherein the material web transporter comprises a plurality of rollers configured to control movement of the fabric from the printing machine to the material accumulator and onto the cutting machine.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the material web transporter is configured to modulate any difference in speed between the printing machine and the cutting machine.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the material web transporter is further configured to measure a length of the fabric printed from the printing machine.

4. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the material accumulator is further configured to direct the fabric into the cutting machine only when a sufficient length of the fabric is accumulated in the material accumulator.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of rollers are configured to maintain a pre-configured tension before passing the fabric to the material accumulator.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein one or more of the plurality of rollers is configured to move in accordance with the speed, weight, and tension of the fabric from the printing machine.

7. The system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the one or more of the plurality of rollers is configured to move vertically while remaining at a constant horizontal distance from other of the plurality of rollers.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising one or more pulleys configured to interact with the plurality of rollers.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein one or more of the plurality of rollers comprises a dancer bar.

10. The system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the dancer bar is configured to use its own weight to tension the fabric.

11. The system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the dancer bar is machine-controlled to maintain a desired tension.

12. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein one or more of the plurality of rollers is configured to drop as fabric is fed into the material accumulator.

13. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the material accumulator is configured to accumulate excess of the fabric when the speed at which the fabric comes off the printing machine is faster than the speed at which the material enters the cutting machine for a continuous print-to-cut operation.

14. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the material accumulator is configured to accumulate excess of the fabric for on-demand cutting by the cutting machine after printing by the printing machine.

15. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the material accumulator is further configured to release the fabric from a stored position and held at a constant tension when the speed at which the fabric comes off the printing machine is slower than the speed at which the material enters the cutting machine to prevent pulling of the fabric.

16. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the material accumulator is further configured to align the fabric before feeding the same to the cutting machine.

17. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an image scanner connected to the material accumulator and the cutting machine, the image scanner configured to scan the fabric and direct the cutting machine based on the dimensions of the fabric.

18. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a heater connected to the printing machine and the material web transporter, the heater configured to set a pattern on the fabric.

19. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising one or more sensors configured to identify and track information relating to the printed fabric.

20. The system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a control system configured to control and direct the system.

21. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control system is configured to control on-demand cutting of fabric as needed.

22. A flexible material transport system for fabric, the system comprising: a printing machine;a material accumulator connected at a first end to the printing machine; anda cutting machine connected to a second end of the material accumulator;wherein the material accumulator is configured to feed printed fabric from the printing machine into the cutting machine; andwherein the material accumulator comprises a material web transporter comprises a plurality of rollers configured to control movement of the fabric from the printing machine to the material accumulator and onto the cutting machine.

23. A flexible material transport system for fabric, the system comprising: a material accumulator configured to hold one or more rolls of fabric; anda cutting machine connected to the material accumulator;wherein the material accumulator is configured to feed fabric into the cutting machine; andwherein the material accumulator comprises a material web transporter, the material web transporter comprising a plurality of rollers configured to control movement of the fabric from the printing machine to the material accumulator and onto the cutting machine.

24. A system for continuous fabric workflow, the system comprising: two or more flexible material transport sub-systems, each of said two or more sub-systems comprising: a printing machine;a material web transporter connected at a first end to the printing machine;a material accumulator connected at a first end to a second end of the material web transporter; anda cutting machine connected to a second end of the material accumulator;wherein the material accumulator is configured to feed printed fabric from the material web transporter into the cutting machine; andwherein the material web transporter comprises a plurality of rollers configured to control movement of the fabric from the printing machine to the material accumulator and onto the cutting machine; anda control system configured to control and direct each of the two or more sub-systems.

25. The system as claimed in claim 24, wherein each of the two or more sub-systems is configured to print a different fabric.

26. The system as claimed in claim 24, wherein each of the two or more sub-systems is configured to cut a different fabric.

27. The system as claimed in claim 24, wherein the two or more sub-systems are connected at least one of physically and electronically.

28. The system as claimed in claim 27, wherein the control system is configured to control on-demand cutting of fabric as needed.

29. The system as claimed in claim 28, wherein the control system is configured to re-direct fabric from the printing machine from a first of the two or more flexible material transport sub-systems to the cutting machine of a second of the two or more flexible material transport sub-systems.

30. The system as claimed in claim 24, wherein the material accumulator in each of the two or more sub-systems is configured to modulate any difference in speed between the printing machine and the cutting machine.

31. The system as claimed in claim 24, wherein the material accumulator in each of the two or more sub-systems is configured to maintain a pre-set tension for the fabric entering the cutting machine.

32. The system as claimed in claim 24, wherein the material accumulator in each of the two or more sub-systems is configured to maintain a specific tension for the fabric entering the cutting machine.

33. The system as claimed in claim 24, wherein the material accumulator in each of the two or more sub-systems is configured to accumulate excess of the fabric when the speed at which the fabric comes off the printing machine is faster than the speed at which the material enters the cutting machine for a continuous print-to-cut operation.

34. The system as claimed in claim 24, wherein the material accumulator in each of the two or more sub-systems is configured to accumulate excess of the fabric for on-demand cutting by the cutting machine after printing by the printing machine.

35. The system as claimed in claim 24, wherein the material accumulator in each of the two or more sub-systems is configured to release the fabric from a stored position and held at a constant tension.

36. The system as claimed in claim 24, wherein the material accumulator in each of the two or more sub-systems is further configured to align the fabric before feeding the same to the cutting machine.

37. The system as claimed in claim 24, wherein each of the two or more sub-systems further comprises an image scanner connected to the material accumulator and the cutting machine, the image scanner configured to scan the fabric and direct the cutting machine based on the dimensions of the fabric.

38. The system as claimed in claim 24, wherein each of the two or more sub-systems further comprises a heater connected to the printing machine and the material web transporter, the heater configured to set a pattern on the fabric.