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Welding - An Alternative To Sewing?

Welding is presented as an alternative to sewing for joining fabrics in the garment industry. The document outlines various welding techniques like heat, ultrasonic, and laser welding. Welding involves applying heat and pressure to fuse fabric seams together without stitches. It creates durable, water-tight seams. However, welding is not suitable for all fabrics and its initial costs are higher than sewing. While welding provides benefits like consistent seals and reduced waste, it cannot fully replace sewing due to limitations and impact on existing thread industries.

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76 views12 pages

Welding - An Alternative To Sewing?

Welding is presented as an alternative to sewing for joining fabrics in the garment industry. The document outlines various welding techniques like heat, ultrasonic, and laser welding. Welding involves applying heat and pressure to fuse fabric seams together without stitches. It creates durable, water-tight seams. However, welding is not suitable for all fabrics and its initial costs are higher than sewing. While welding provides benefits like consistent seals and reduced waste, it cannot fully replace sewing due to limitations and impact on existing thread industries.

Uploaded by

elisa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Welding – An Alternative to

Sewing?
Sewing in Garment Industry
Sewing is the most commonly used method for joining fabrics or
garment parts in the garment industry. Sewing is one of the important
processes in apparel making.

The basic process of sewing involves fastening of fabrics, leather, furs or


similar other flexible materials with the help of needle and threads.

There have been many attempts in the past for finding out the most
suitable replacement for sewing. But none of them match the flexibility,
appearance and performance achieved through sewing.
Welding
In this technique, heat and pressure is applied to the seams
of the fabric to fuse them together, thus making a sealed
formation.

Fabric welding is done with the help of a variety of heat


sealing machines.

Thermoplastic coatings such as polypropylene (PP),


polyvinylchloride (PVC) and polyethylene (PE) are used for
heat sealing.
Process
The basic steps in welding include:
1. Heat application on fabric
2. Melting of thermoplastic materials
3. Applying pressure on melted area
4. Creation of bonding
5. Cooling
6. Joining of the fabric
The process of welding differs in how the heat is applied. When a
joint is made, a clamping force causes a heating effect at the
interface of the 2 materials which gives rise to a welded bond.
Rotary Welding
Hot air, hot wedge and ultrasonic welding are generally categorised as
rotary welding.

In this process, the fabric moves continuously with the help of drive
wheels through the machine while it is welded. The heat is sent through
a source like hot gas or heated metal wedge after which heat is applied.
This seals the fabric permanently.

Although Rotary welding needs skilled-labour and well-trained operators,


it is a fast process and can weld up to 6 metres of fabric in a minute.
Ultra-Sonic welding
In this process, Ultrasonic waves (frequencies) are administered to
the fabric from the horn of the welding machine. This frequency
generates heat within the fibres at the point of the joint site,
causing the polymers to join and form a bond.

Welding with the ultrasonic method is probably the most diverse of


its applications. It can be used for manufacture of protective
clothing, outdoor garments, lingerie, filters etc.

On the contrary, not all the fabrics can be welded by ultrasonic


welding. Welding is limited to a specific thickness of fabric as it may
harm the outside surface of the fabric before bonding with it.
Specially in case of shear fabrics, this might be the phenomenon.
Laser Welding
The principle of laser welding is simple: a laser beam heats up the metal or
thermoplastic so intensely that it melts in places and the materials become fused.

Laser welding is the best method in order to create seams of high quality and better
reproducibility. It is ideal for woven fabrics made of polyester or polyamide.

The most important part of laser welding is that it does not damage the exterior of the
fabric which creates a seamless effect. Laser-welded seams are extremely flat, elastic,
and skin-friendly.

Since laser welding does not require adhesives of any kind, it is also especially
environmentally friendly due to the recycling process.
Advantages of Welding
The welding process proves beneficial to the garment industry in many
ways not only because of its durability but also the quality.

• Welding is beneficial in the manufacturing mainly because it gives


sealed edges and seams. Also since there are no stitch holes and no
penetration into the fabric, it also makes the product aesthetically
appealing. This provides welding an extra edge over sewing.
• It also provides a consistent and permanent seal to the garment unlike
sewing. The thread in the sewn garments can suffer tension problems
and could break whereas the welding process welds the fabric evenly
making an air-tight bond.
Advantages of Welding
• Welding can be used to create durable, abrasion resistant and water-tight
garments for various purposes. It can be also used to tackle problems like
thickness variation of the fabric and joining tight or small corners.
• No external heating material or element is needed in this process. This
makes it a cost-effective method as compared to other joining methods
(moulding, adhesives, fusing etc.).
• Since there is no requirement of needle or thread used in the process, a
large amount of material and waste it reduced. There is no threat of
thread deterioration time or needle breakage.
Welding as an alternative to Sewing
• No matter how productive, cost saving and time saving the process of welding might be,
it cannot replace sewing for all kind of applications. Some fabrics cannot be processed
due to the presence of certain colorants or additives.
• Despite with numerous advantages over sewing, welding doesn’t prove to be much
economical for an organization. The initial financial layout for the machinery and the time
and expertise to train staff can be both time consuming and expensive.
• Also, high level of accuracy is needed from the operator in the process of welding
because once the process is completed it is difficult to alter or repair the garment. More
usage of welding method in the garment industry will also affect the thread industry as
most of the garment manufacturing is done using threads and needles.
• Although welding is a costlier production method compared to sewing, the cost may
come down in future with the new advancements in technology.
Conclusion
Welding as a method for garment bonding may prove to be of great benefit in
the garment industry in future. Smart technology and wearable technology
need a lot of work in terms of awareness building and information provision.

The global apparel industry mostly works on sewing when it comes to


manufacturing a garment. There is always a lot of struggle involved in terms of
adapting such complex and intricate methods and taking them to the next
level.

There is a huge potential conflict between the new techniques of fabrics


joining and conventional methods being used already. Sewing is the most
commonly used technique and is also a high labour intensive process which
renders production cost-prohibitive in many parts of the world. On the other
hand, welding restricts to the seaming of particularly synthetic fibres.
For an elaborate insight on the topic, visit
www.stitchdiary.com

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