By Dr. Virgilio L. González, Textiles Panamericanos Correspondent

Since 1998, Elim S.A. has been doing business in Guatemala mainly in regards to complete package and the company is characterized by its good reputation, quick response to customers, quality and performance.

Located in Colonia La Escuadrilla of this Central American country, Elim mainly dedicates sewing activities and has:

• 3,500 square meters of sewing space;
• 320 workers, mostly Guatemalan;
• 290 sewing machines, mostly Juki brand;
• The ability to produce 390,000 garments per month;
• 600 cubic meters of storage space;
• A complete laboratory to test fabric quality; and
• CTPAT approval for the storage area of its finished products.

The development carried out at Elim within its factory includes:

• a variety of pattern design based on tech packs. There are 16 highly-trained operators who assume the challenge of manufacturing any sample of a variety of styles.
• Making samples within three days after receiving the tech pack thanks to the wide variety of types of samples already developed in 20 years of work.
• Highly efficient fabric consumption, calculated using a CAD system within its production plant

The company also has seven cutting tables with a capacity of 18,000 garments per day and 5 sewing lines with a capacity of 15,000 pieces per day.

Quality Control

Throughout its history, Elim has developed an elaborate quality plan for different stages of its production process. During production, it cuts samples and checks the production made, inline and at the end, including after pressing. Upon completion of production, the company performs the respective audits.

Fabrics produced include jerseys, interlocks, 1X1 and 2X1 ribs, waffles, piques, French terry and fleece. To manufacture, Elim has approximately 900,000 kilograms of yarn stored in 100-percent cotton, cotton/polyester blends, triblends, 100-percent polyester, polyester/rayon blends and 100-percent Rayon. The company produces T-shirts, polos, henleys, fashion styles and also prints, dyes and embroiders. Elim works with brands such as Nautical, Tommy Hilfiger, Disney, Guess, Calvin Klein, Chaps, Buffalo, Edwards, Lucky Brand, New Era, ZooYork, Costco, Walmart, JC Penney, Kmart and Sears. Its exports all its production to the United States.

Printing plant

Elim also has a plant for printing fabrics in an area of 1,400 square meters housing 60 employees, four 100-percent automated machines, and a semi-automated 100-meter printing table. The installed capacity allows Elim to produce up to 1 million pieces. The company also has 4 sample machines for faster development.

Figures from last year yielded sales in the order of $30 million and its future projections predict increases to this figure. Therefore, Elim is expected to be a good example of progressive textile and to continue to be triumphant in the future.

August 16, 2018

By Albert Busch

We are living in the Amazon era. Consumers know what they want, when they want it (now), and they can get it at the click of a button. Amazon has mastered speed to market and has made it easier than ever to buy everything from apparel, office supplies, medication and even groceries. The impact has been far-reaching, affecting industries across the board, including healthcare, technology and, in particular, retail. For brands and manufacturers alike, the message has been clear: increase speed to market, or risk your competitors beating you there.

There is no question that the textile and apparel industry is under pressure to increase speed to market, thanks in large part to the trend toward fast fashion. McKinsey & Company’s report, “The State of Fashion 2018” highlights the “need for speed” and “supply chain optimization” while acknowledging that a shortened timeline “requires major changes to the traditional business model and supply chain setup.”

In fact, speed to market was a central theme of the Textile Summit, hosted by Datacolor this summer in Denver. The three-day summit brought together textile industry leaders to address the challenges presented by managing color in the retail and apparel industry. Attendees heard from some of the best and brightest in the textile industry. Color experts from Marks & Spencer, the Americas Apparel Producers’ Network, Color Solutions International and other organizations shared their thoughts on the current state of the industry with insightful presentations and roundtable discussions. Almost every single one of them mentioned the relevance of speed to market.

As the attendees discussed challenges and potential solutions, it became clear that apparel brands large and small are all facing the same problems and have similar questions about how to achieve quicker, more efficient turnarounds — especially during the color approval process. One summit presenter quantified this with a bold statement: the industry has not progressed much in the color approval arena in the last 30 years.

The “need for speed” starts at the very beginning of the workflow process. As John Darsey, vice president of sales of global color products and services supplier Color Solutions International, explained, speed to market begins with proper color selection, but often, a disconnect in the supply chain leads to slowdowns and errors. Manual review of “unmeasurable” textiles is lengthening time from color concept to consumer. Is it possible to digitize the entire color development process to avoid delays due to multiple rounds of physical lab dips and visual inconsistences?

At Datacolor, we believe it is. We want to revolutionize the workflow and enable quantification of these “unmeasurables.” That’s why we recently introduced SpectraVision, a solution that ultimately saves costs and shortens time from concept to consumer by objectively measuring and digitally communicating the color of previously unmeasurable textiles, including prints, trims, yarns, laces and zippers.

The solution is a huge step forward for brands looking to increase their color approval process. But the reality is that speed to market is about more than just digitization. There are pain points all along the supply chain, particularly between brands and their mills and dye houses. These include:

1. Poor transparency;
2. A lack of accountability among suppliers; and
3. The absence of real-time data to inform decision making.

These are just some of the many opportunities for future improvement. Brands looking to the future and companies anticipating these challenges will not only survive, they’ll thrive. The “need for speed” mentality isn’t going away anytime soon, but with innovative technology leading the way, the industry can take a step in the right direction by addressing issues before they occur and identifying effective, long-term solutions.

Editor’s Note: Albert Busch is the CEO of Lawrenceville, N.J.-based Datacolor, a provider of color management solutions, software, instruments and services that assure accurate color of materials, products, and images. The world’s leading brands, manufacturers, and creative professionals have used Datacolor’s innovative solutions to consistently achieve the right color for more than 45 years. The company provides sales, service, and support to over 100 countries throughout Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Industries served include textile and apparel, paint and coatings, automotive and plastics as well as photography, design and videography. For more information, visit: Datacolor.com.

By Ray Spurgeon

The apparel industry has recently endured troubling product recalls after needles were found in children’s clothing. In one case, more than 17,000 items of popular baby clothes were recalled after a needle was left inside a onesie. In another incident, a manufacturer put out an urgent recall of 12,000 pieces of children’s clothing after parents found a sewing needle attached to a garment. These types of metal contamination recall events occur all too often and can threaten an apparel company’s reputation and future.

Despite careful attention and sound manufacturing practices, looming and sewing needles can find their way into finished consumer apparel products. While the industry has utilized metal detectors for quite some time, there are new approaches to positioning the equipment in different locations throughout the process to better safeguard against metal contamination.

Eriez® has served the textile industry for more than 25 years, supplying metal detectors and magnetic separators. This equipment is primarily used on the non-woven web off looms, as shown in Figure 1. Before the introduction of metal detectors, manufacturers mounted wide plate magnets below or above the web to “pull out” the highly magnetic needles.

Manufacturers discovered this solution was unreliable as the needles were frequently dragged off the magnet by the moving web and wedged back into the nonwoven web. This started the trend toward installing metal detectors. Upon detection, metal detectors signal an audible and visual alarm to prompt operators to shut down the line and remove the metal.  Although this approach continues to be a solid first line of defense for needle detection and removal, it does little to ensure needles do not make their way into the finished packaged product.

Finished Packaged Metal Detection: Taking Needle Inspection to the Next Level

Recognizing the limitations of needle detection and removal using magnets on nonwoven webs, big box stores are now directing apparel manufacturers to add metal detectors on their finished package lines using a belt system (See Figure 2).  The metal detector system conveys the packages through the aperture and signals an alarm or actuates a reject device when metal is detected. In most applications, these systems will detect broken needles down to the millimeter size level. However, each needle’s unique orientation affects detectability, making it important to understand the implications this presents.

What is the Impact of the Needle’s Orientation?

Most metal detector manufactures quantify a metal detector’s sensitivity in spherical sizes. Simply stated, a sphere has no orientation due to its shape. Conversely, a needle has many constituents, including its diameter, length, scarf size, tip, eyelet and more. These factors make it difficult to quantify detection thresholds. Therefore, we will dig deeper into needle orientation using a simple illustration.

Figure 3 shows a 1-millimeter diameter x 75-millimeter long needle in what a human eye sees as a “favorable” orientation; that is to say there is a lot of visible surface area. Similarly, when a needle passes through a detector in a favorable orientation (lots of surface area), the detector easily “sees” it. The signal strength — known as amplitude in metal detector terms– is at its greatest in this orientation, making it easily detectable.

Conversely, Figure 4 illustrates the same needle, but from the end view (1 millimeter). Using the human eye analogy, the needle is in an unfavorable orientation, as there is very limited surface area. Accordingly, it is more difficult for the metal detector to detect in this unfavorable orientation.

Figure 4: A needle in its worst orientation can have a spherical equivalent of 1 millimeter or less.

Equating Sphere Size to Needle Detection

As mentioned, a needle’s orientation and size have a profound impact on its detectability (also known as amplitude). This makes it problematic to quantify sensitivities since there are infinite geometric ways it could pass through a metal detector.  For that reason, Eriez test lab technicians incrementally cut the needles down (See Figure 5) to first determine the smallest detectable needle in its best orientation. Afterwards each needle is passed through the detector in its worst orientation and amplitude is measured. Finally, a certified sphere is passed through the detector to determine the spherical size that duplicates the needle’s amplitude. This information is communicated in a material test report.

Sizing and Specifying a Metal Detector to Get the Best Possible Needle Detection

Since a metal detector’s sensitivity is linear to its opening (See Figure 6), smaller apertures equate to better detection. That said, there are a couple of axioms when sizing the equipment. Typically, we will take the package height and width and add 3-4 inches.  Accordingly, assuming a package of socks measures 4-inches high x 10-inches wide, a 14-inch wide x 8-inch high aperture would be recommended.  Empirically we know the best achievable sensitivity would be in the range of 1.2 millimeter ferrous sphere, which in this application equates to a 1 millimeter diameter x 1.2 millimeter long broken needle.

Figure 6: A metal detector’s aperture height and width determine needle detectability.

The size of the detectable needle may be unacceptable to an end user in some cases, making an alternative necessary. In the previous example, a bundle of packaged socks was scanned in a 14-inch x 8-inch aperture. If a single pack (See Figure 7) was selected, a much smaller aperture could be used, which would allow for significantly smaller needle tip detection.  This is the balance that needs to be considered when selecting a metal detector to meet an end user’s detection requirements.

In summary, needles will inevitably find their way into finished apparel. Employing metal detection on finished packages is essential for avoiding recalls which can damage a manufacturer’s reputation and significantly decrease their revenue

Commonly Asked Questions about Installing Metal Detector Conveyor Systems

Question: How much space does a conveyor system require?

Answer: The system size is dependent upon the aperture dimension and whether a reject device is needed. More often than not, it requires 5-7 feet.

Question: Can I install a metal detector on my existing conveyor?

Answer: The short answer is yes, but this is not recommended as metal detector conveyors require very specific design criteria such as continuous weld elements to prevent make and breaks on electrical eddy current loops, anti-static slider bed material, isolations on fasteners using shoulder washers and proper metal free zones, to name just a few.

Question: What sort of preventive maintenance is required?

Answer: Eriez metal detectors require no periodic maintenance or tuning.  All critical circuits are continually scanned. If a problem occurs, a warning alarm is initiated.

Question: How much do these systems cost?

Answer: Depending on the size and sophistication of the unit, you can expect to pay $20,000 to $30,000.

Editor’s Note: Ray Spurgeon is Metal Detection product manager at Erie-Pa.-based Eriez®.

August 16, 2018