Articles
RSSRFID In The Textile Industry
March 17, 2005
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Are form-fitting ensembles made with plastic bottles the new wave of fashion? Before you excuse this notion as preposterous, take a good long look at that winter gear in your closet. Malden Mills, a Massachusetts textile company is the inventor and premiere producer of Polartec fabric and clothes. They sell this resilient fabric to commercial leaders like Nike, L.L. Bean and The North Face. Malden Mills has been making headlines in the last few years for among other things, ethical business practices in the face of adversity. After the original factory burned down in 1999 the company continued to pay employees their full time wages for an entire year while the new facility was being rebuilt. In addition to these newsworthy ethics, a recent contract with the US Military has also given Malden Mills some well-deserved recognition.
The production of Polartec fabric begins with a 1700-needle, circular-knit machines. These machines knit fabric strands together at a rate of 25 yards a minute, forming extremely long (roughly 40 yards) pieces of fabric that resemble giant Christmas stockings. The majority of production problems occur in this initial stage. Realistically any machine that is using 1700 tiny little needles at very high speeds is bound to have one or two occasionally get bent or break. If a needle is bent or broken it results is an imperfection in the material similar to runs women constantly deal with in their pantihose.
The mammoth sock-like piece of fabric comes out of the knitting machine in a giant roll. The roll is then taken to an inspection and joining station where it is unrolled, inspected for imperfections, and sewn end-to-end with other socks. The end result is a giant continuos roll of conjoined socks. It is at this point that EMS RFID technology comes into play.
