The future of the textile industry: digital and integrated

Digital technologies are conquering the textile industry and opening up new possibilities: from virtual product development in 3D, to fully automated digital printing, and state-of-the-art digital cutting systems. At ITMA 2015 in Milan, Zünd, together with industry partners, will be demonstrating how textile & garment manufacturers can make their production processes more efficient, profitable, and transparent with "Simulate, Print & Cut".

„Simulate, Print & Cut“ is a fully integrated, highly adaptable production workflow Zünd is introducing together with DITF (the German Institute for Textile & Fiber Research Denkendorf), Assyst, Ergosoft, and Kornit. „Simulate, Print & Cut“ integrates the traditionally separate areas of design, file preparation, printing, and cutting. It automates the entire production process and increases profitability. Integrating the different phases of production leads to greater overall efficiency, better transparency, and faster turn-around. „Simulate, Print & Cut“ therefore contributes significantly to realizing the full potential of production optimization essential in state-of-the-art textile & garment manufacturing. The system seamlessly links all processing phases from digital design and pattern development, placement of the design in virtual 3D, to file preparation for digital printing, and precise cutting with a Zünd digital cutting system. In doing so, it creates entirely new possibilities for design and product development. The effective use of new technologies leads to significantly shorter delivery times and makes production planning a great deal more flexible. The garment and fashion industry, always under pressure to come up with the next collection, has no choice but to produce as efficiently and economically as possible. „Simulate, Print & Cut“ provides a perfect solution for reducing time to market.

State-of-the-art Vidya 3D simulation software from pioneer and market leader Assyst is used for pattern development. The software permits photo-realistic simulation of the human body and garment, as well as virtual sampling. The company's web-based service automarker.com is used for material-optimized layout and marker management.

ErgoSoft's RIP software TexPrint takes care of the preparation of print data. As supplier of high-end RIP software, ErgoSoft offers solutions specifically for textile printing – from color management to automation solutions.

In a next step, the designs are printed on the new textile pigment printer Allegro from Kornit.

Finally, the printed rolls of fabric are cut on a Zünd S3 cutting system. Because of its open interface, the state-of-the-art Zünd S3 cutter can be seamlessly integrated in any production workflow. In addition, the Zünd cutter offers a wide variety of modular tooling capable of processing the full spectrum of textile and other flexible materials with remarkable precision and efficiency.

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Christian Kaiser, DITF, points out: Because it is completely digital throughout all phases of production, „Simulate, Print & Cut“ makes every process more efficient, flexible, and robust. For the textile industry this is an important milestone on its journey to Industry 4.0. It leads to time and material savings and facilitates the realization of complex designs.