Industry Reaction to the Stitchless Shirt Article Published in Stitchworld December 2013

The article on ‘Stitchless Shirt’ published in the December edition of StitchWorld drew an overwhelming response from the industry and while all appreciated the article, few had some very specific observations and we feel obligated to respond.

Firstly, the industry raised an objection to the use of NOSO machines from Framis Italia as alternative to MACPI’s technology, since they can only provide very limited machines range. A stitch-free shirt cannot be completed by only using their equipment, as they mainly can provide adhesive tape for decoration on sportswear.

Secondly, the industry is intrigued as to what is patented and how can anyone patent a technology which the industry can readily buy… What is actually patented, the process or the technology? While the technology is commercially available, it seems the manufacturing process is patented; does it mean that other manufacturers need to pay royalty to put up similar stitchless manufacturing plant? The inventor’s name from patent literature apparently indicates they are employee of Luthai, does this indicate Luthai and MACPI jointly developed the technology?

[bleft] The industry observations were sent to the relevant bonding machine manufacturers – Framis Italia, MACPI and Brother… While Framis Italia chose not to respond, the other two companies sent clarifications, which are reproduced below. [/bleft]

Thirdly, in the concluding paragraph of the article wherein Brother machine was mentioned, it was brought to notice that the Brother machine cannot operate on cotton based fabric, as the glue is easily visible through the seam, such technology has been tried out by Luthai, but immediately rejected by them due to several issues such as bad chemical smell generated by the liquid glue and extrusion system, also the glue can easily leak out of the seam, creating an unacceptable aesthetic look.

Response from Fabrizio Berzi, South Asia Area Sales Manager, MACPI Bonding Division…

As for Luthai, the patent has been applied by them for the final product (shirt without any single stitching), not sure of the kind of commercial detail/agreement that should be signed with them to commercialize the stitchless shirt.

We provided the equipment to Luthai to achieve the 100% stitchless shirts, it is understood that the same machines can be used for other types of apparel also, such as underwear, swimwear, sportswear etc., so our patent is protecting our machines technical features, without interfere with our customer’s final production.

However, we had a joint cooperation with Luthai matching their know-how of shirt manufacturers with our expertise in manufacturing machines and equipment, in order to optimize the production flow.

Response from Tetsuya Uraguchi, Marketing Manager, Industrial Products Division, Brother…

Latest machines can control glue volume based on thickness of material and material type. Though our glue has better stretchable function, it does not mean it cannot be used for non stretch cotton material. Another point you mentioned was “chemical smell” of glue. I know original glue had chemical smell but latest glue such as new developed one (around year-and-a-half ago) does not have any smell at all. Now we are using this new PU based hot melt react type glue, which does not melt when re-heated, modifies smell and has less than 50% cure time than old one. Brother is the sole glue supplier in the market and we are keeping good stock in Singapore.

At the moment our machines can supply only one surface for glue. So if you want to glue 3 materials with 2 faces, we must run two steps. Now we are studying about next generation machines for handling this kind of operation.

Tape bonding system takes like handcraft way to control quality and assemble. Our machine needs to use folder like sewing machine to control material. Hemming, holding, overlap, need to use folder to control material handling.