Will a robot ever make your blue jeans?
A quiet effort to find out is underway – involving apparel and technology companies, including Germany’s Siemens and Levi Strauss & Co.
“Clothes is the last trillion-dollar industry that is not automated,” said Eugene Solojo, who heads a project at Siemens Labs in San Francisco that has worked on automated apparel manufacturing since 2018.
The idea of using robots to bring more manufacturing back from overseas gained momentum during the pandemic as supply chains highlighted the risks of relying on remote factories.
Finding a way to eliminate handwork in China and Bangladesh would allow more garment manufacturing to return to Western consumer markets, including the US. But this is a sensitive topic.
Many apparel manufacturers are reluctant to talk about their quest for automation — because of fears it will hurt workers in developing countries. Jonathan Zorno, who has developed techniques to automate parts of jeans factories, said he has received criticism online — and one death threat.
A Levi’s spokesman said he could confirm the company participated in the early stages of the project but declined to comment further.
Problem of floppy clothes
Sewing is a particular challenge for automation.
Unlike a car bumper or a plastic bottle, which keeps its shape as the robot handles it, fabric is floppy and comes in an endless array of thicknesses and textures. Robots cannot be easily touched by human hands. To be sure, robots are getting better, but it will take years to fully develop the ability to handle clothes, according to five researchers interviewed by Reuters.
But what if enough work could be done by machine to at least close the cost gap between the United States and low-cost foreign factories? It is now the focus of research efforts.
The work at Siemens stemmed from efforts to create software to guide robots that could handle all kinds of flexible materials, such as thin wire cables, Solojo said, adding that he soon realized that the most One of the goals was clothing. According to independent data platform Statista, the global apparel market is estimated at $1.52 trillion.
Siemens worked with the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute in Pittsburgh, which was created in 2017 and funded by the Department of Defense to help old-line manufacturers find ways to use new technology. . He points to a San Francisco startup that has a promising approach to the floppy fabric problem. Instead of teaching robots how to handle fabric, the startup, Sewbo Inc., hardens fabric with chemicals so it can be handled like a car bumper during production. Once finished, the finished fabric is washed to remove the hardening agent.
“Anyway, every piece of denim is washed after it’s made, so it fits into the current production system,” said Zorno, Sebo’s inventor.
Enlisting robots
The research effort eventually involved several clothing companies, including Levi’s and Bluewater Defense LLC, a small US-based manufacturer of military uniforms. They received a $1.5 million grant from the Pittsburgh Robotics Institute to experiment with the technique.
There are other efforts to automate sewing factories. Software Automation Inc., a startup in Georgia, has developed a machine that can stretch and sew T-shirts on a specially equipped table.
Eric Speke, CEO of Blue Water Defense, the uniform maker, was part of the research effort with Siemens but is skeptical of the Sewbo approach. “Putting materials (hardening) into the garments — it just adds another process,” said Spocky, adding that it can make sense for producers who previously Those who wash clothes as part of their regular work, such as jeans makers.
The first step is to get robots into the garment factories.
Sanjeev Bahl, who opened a small jeans factory called Saitex in downtown Los Angeles two years ago, has studied the Sewbo machines and is preparing to install his first experimental machine.
Walking through his factory in September, he pointed to workers working on old-style machines and said many of them were ready for the new process.
“If it works,” he said, “I don’t think there’s any reason not to do mass manufacturing (of jeans) here in America.”
