Technical textile producers report practical gains with USTER® EVS fabric inspection systems

Automated visual fabric inspection is an essential asset in optimizing quality for a wide range of technical textiles and performance apparel. Applications in architecture, automotive, construction, hazard protection, medicine, aviation and aerospace have some of the most stringent quality criteria. But fabrics for furnishings, sports and functional clothing must also meet the perfect standards that major brands need to uphold their reputation and satisfy customer expectations.

All fabric producers aim to deliver the quality their customers specify, while also minimizing scrap and seconds to protect their own efficiency and profitability. The different fabric production and finishing processes contain plenty of opportunities for fabric faults to arise. USTER’s automated fabric inspection system bring quality under control, regardless of the complexities of the manufacturing stages. Fallible human judgment and varying levels of operative ability and experience are no longer critical to the production of consistent, reliable quality. Accurate automatic quality control becomes an integral part of manufacturing.

Early-stage control with USTER® EVS Q-BAR eliminates the need for manual inspection after production. USTER® EVS FABRIQ VISION ensures reliable monitoring, using automated control during intermediate and final inspection. The system’s ability to capture any visible faults – with a proven and consistently high rate of defect detection – and its optimized fabric grading protect the producer from the risk of damaging claims.

Dyed fabrics present the particular extra challenge of color uniformity. USTER® EVS FABRIQ SHADE has the solution, monitoring in-line shade variation in virtually any process where color is critical, without the need to cut fabric swatches for laboratory tests.

Optimizing profit

Automatic fabric inspection is the way to achieve optimum quality, to reduce below-par and scrap fabrics and to maximize fabric yield. The cut optimization software module of USTER® EVS FABRIQ VISION and USTER® EVS FABRIQ SHADE optimizes fabric yield per class, according to the settings. The system works by marking any defects in the fabric during inspection. The position of each defect is synchronized with Optimized Cut Control (OCC), which stops the cutting table at precisely the right place, guaranteeing error-free cutting. OCC can also identify and highlight defects which require operator action, making the process more efficient.