Virtual prototyping for fashion 4.0

Virtual prototyping shows enormous potential to make the fashion manufacturing industry greener and leaner. Yet the technology is not well embraced by the industry. No matter what the reason is, this is the only way towards e-manufacturing for fashion 4.0. This paper provides an overview of the technology and its features

Eco-design framework for reducing fabric waste and consumption during fast fashion production

Fast fashion business model is well-known for being responsible for accelerated waste generation both at post-consumption and manufacturing phases. The average marker efficiency of industrial fabric cutting process for garment manufacturing is 85%, which means average 15% of fabrics is directly scrapped during this stage. This makes all the efforts and inputs given from fibre to fabric production go fully in vain and the environmental impact and climate change contribution by this 15% of scrapped fabrics unjustifiable. Zero-Waste Pattern Cutting (ZWPC) is a recent trend in increasing fabric utilisation but is only practiced in atelier environment for making one or two garments. Our previous work demonstrated the integration of ZWPC in mass production of knitwear resulting over 95% of fabric utilisation. In this work, we demonstrated an eco-design framework for integrating ZWPC in to design and pattern cutting of woven garments in mass production scenario. As ZWPC approach demands significant changes in pattern geometry to increase fabric utilisation, it is necessary to first check through wearer trial how a garment drapes and appears on human body before finalising the design for mass production. The whole process is heuristic and based on ‘error and trial’ method. The physical prototyping and fit checking processes are very time and material consuming, hence not sustainable in this case. Therefore, virtual prototyping and fit analysis approach has been adopted to test the fit of eco-designed garment

Development and characterisation of multilayer jute fabric reinforced HDPE composites

The bast fibres, a subgroup of natural fibre family, have emerged as a strong competitor of widely used man-made glass fibre for use as fillers or reinforcing materials in certain types of composite materials, which do not require very high mechanical resistance. This paper investigates manufacturing of multi-layered jute fabric reinforced thermoplastic composite and its mechanical performance. Hessian jute fabrics in 2, 4 and 6 layers without any pre-treatment were sandwiched in 0° orientation into seven layers of High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) sheets and pressed at high temperature and pressure to form composite laminates having three different structural designs. The laminates with 2, 4 and 6 layers contain approximately 6.70 wt%, 12.90 wt%, and 18.50 wt% of jute fibres respectively. Mechanical performance of the composite laminates having 4 and 6 layers of jute fabric was found to have improved significantly when compared to the pure HDPE laminates. Within a given sample thickness of 6.5 mm, the laminate with 6-layers of jute fabric exhibited the best mechanical performance. Optical microscopic analysis revealed that the yarn orientation of the fabrics within the composites remained stable and there was no visible void in the laminate structure. Fracture morphology of the composite investigated by a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) showed good adhesion of the jute fabrics with the HDPE matrix

Review on Smart Electro-Clothing Systems (SeCSs)

This review paper presents an overview of the smart electro-clothing systems (SeCSs) targeted at health monitoring, sports benefits, fitness tracking, and social activities. Technical features of the available SeCSs, covering both textile and electronic components, are thoroughly discussed and their applications in the industry and research purposes are highlighted. In addition, it also presents the developments in the associated areas of wearable sensor systems and textile-based dry sensors. As became evident during the literature research, such a review on SeCSs covering all relevant issues has not been presented before. This paper will be particularly helpful for new generation researchers who are and will be investigating the design, development, function, and comforts of the sensor integrated clothing materials

Smart Clothing Framework for Health Monitoring Applications

Wearable technologies are making a significant impact on people’s way of living thanks to the advancements in mobile communication, internet of things (IoT), big data and artificial intelligence. Conventional wearable technologies present many challenges for the continuous monitoring of human health conditions due to their lack of flexibility and bulkiness in size. Recent development in e-textiles and the smart integration of miniature electronic devices into textiles have led to the emergence of smart clothing systems for remote health monitoring. A novel comprehensive framework of smart clothing systems for health monitoring is proposed in this paper. This framework provides design specifications, suitable sensors and textile materials for smart clothing (e.g., leggings) development. In addition, the proposed framework identifies techniques for empowering the seamless integration of sensors into textiles and suggests a development strategy for health diagnosis and prognosis through data collection, data processing and decision making. The conceptual technical specification of smart clothing is also formulated and presented. The detailed development of this framework is presented in this paper with selected examples. The key challenges in popularizing smart clothing and opportunities of future development in diverse application areas such as healthcare, sports and athletics and fashion are discussed

Sustainable adsorbents from plant-derived agricultural wastes for anionic dye removal: a review

The extensive use of dyes in numerous industries results in massive dye discharge in the wastewater, which is a major cause of water pollution. Globally, the consumption of dyes is near seven hundred thousand tons across different sectors, of which around 10–15% goes into the wastewater. Among the dye kinds, anionic dyes make up the main proportion, having a 32–90% share in the wastewater. Different plant-derived wastes, which are sustainable given their natural abundance, effectiveness, and low cost, are frequently proposed for dye separation. However, these adsorbents are inherently more suitable for cationic dyes than anionic dyes. In recent years, the modification of these wastes has been progressively considered to suit them to anionic dye removal. These modifications involve mechanical, thermal, or chemical treatments, or combinations. These attempts propose two-way benefits, as one abundant waste is being used to cure another severe problem, and eventually both could be diminished. This review has a key focus on the evaluation of plant-derived adsorbents and their modifications, and particularly for anionic dye adsorption. Overall, the mechanism of adsorption and the suitability of the current methods are discussed, and their future potential is explored

Current development and future perspective on natural jute fibers and their biocomposites

The increasing trend of the use of synthetic products may result in an increased level of pollution affecting both the environment and living organisms. Therefore, from the sustainability point of view, natural, renewable and biodegradable materials are urgently needed to replace environmentally harmful synthetic materials. Jute, one of the natural fibers, plays a vital role in developing composite materials that showed potential in a variety of applications such as household, automotive and medical appliances. This paper first reviews the characterization and performance of jute fibers. Subsequently, the main focus is shifted towards research advancements in enhancing physical, mechanical, thermal and tribological properties of the polymeric materials (i.e., synthetic or biobased and thermoplastic or thermoset plastic) reinforced with jute fibers in a variety of forms such as particle, short fiber or woven fabric. It is understood that the physio-mechanical properties of jute-polymer composites largely vary based on the fiber processing and treatment, fiber shape and/or size, fabrication processes, fiber volume fraction, layering sequence within the matrix, interaction of the fiber with the matrix and the matrix materials used. Furthermore, the emerging research on jute fiber, such as nanomaterials from jute, bioplastic packaging, heavy metal absorption, electronics, energy device or medical applications and development of jute fiber composites with 3D printing, is explored. Finally, the key challenges for jute and its derivative products in gaining commercial successes have been highlighted and potential future directions are discussed

Mapping environmental sustainability of knitted textile production facilities

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12, it is important to investigate the sustainability of both products and manufacturing facilities to identify the areas to improve. The number of published research works on measuring the eco-indices of fashion products are plenty, while ignoring the measurement of the eco-indices of fashion production facilities. Therefore, this study investigated the environmental sustainability of knit-dyeing facilities linked to fast fashion production in Bangladesh. The Facility Environment Module (FEM) of the Higg index tool 2.0 from Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) was applied to detect the sustainability scores. Multiple case study approach was adopted for this study. Seven tools of FEM related to the environmental management system, energy use, GHG emissions, water use, wastewater, air emissions, waste management, and chemical management were applied to collect data. Scores of these categories were calculated using the FEM tool. Qualitative data was collected through short interviews using a questionnaire. A varying range of scores (from low to high) was found for all the categories. The scores reveal the technical, managerial, and resource limitations on practicing sustainable production approaches in knit-textiles facilities. The overall finding urges all stakeholders, including manufacturers, researchers, buyers, and policymakers, to pay serious attention and reformulate strategies and resources to reduce the negative impact of knit manufacturing on the environment

Framework for Environmentally Sustainable Fashion and Textile Production to achieve United Nation (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12

A framework with three key actions - identify (I), act (A), and evaluate (E) to achieve complete environmental sustainability in fashion and textile production in line with SDG 12– has been developed as a part of a Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF) project. Called as the ‘I-A-E framework’, it emphasises more on zero or near-zero waste generation at source and incorporating sustainability thinking in material and process selections, rather than post-production waste management after generating huge amounts of wastes and effluents. The first step involves ‘identifying’ present scenarios and points of action in context of resource consumption, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and solid waste generation in product development and production. The next step is to ‘act’ for sustainable development, which includes - incorporating a zero-waste philosophy during production, incorporating sustainability thinking into material selection and incorporating sustainability into production process, incorporating sustainability in resource and waste management. The third component of the framework is to ‘evaluate’ to celebrate and move forward by checking the eco-indices to amend targets or set new ones. This new framework was validated through stakeholders’ workshops and roundtable discussion. It is an easy-to-follow toolkit that the fashion and textile industry will be able to implement into their product development and production activities

Assessing Mechanical Properties of Jute, Kenaf, and Pineapple Leaf Fiber-Reinforced Polypropylene Composites: Experiment and Modelling

The application of natural fibers is increasing rapidly in the polymer-based composites. This study investigates manufacturing and characterization of polypropylene (PP) based composites reinforced with three different natural fibers: jute, kenaf, and pineapple leaf fiber (PALF). In each case, the fiber weight percentages were varied by 30 wt.%, 35 wt.%, and 40 wt.%. Mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural, and impact strengths were determined by following the relevant standards. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was employed to identify the chemical interactions between the fiber and the PP matrix material. Tensile strength and Izod impact strength of the composites significantly increased for all the composites with different fiber contents when compared to the pure PP matrix. The tensile moduli of the composites were compared to the values obtained from two theoretical models based on the modified “rule of mixtures” method. Results from the modelling agreed well with the experimental results. Tensile strength (ranging from 43 to 58 MPa), flexural strength (ranging from 53 to 67 MPa), and impact strength (ranging from 25 to 46 kJ/m2) of the composites significantly increased for all the composites with different fiber contents when compared to the pure PP matrix having tensile strength of 36 MPa, flexural strength of 53 Mpa, and impact strength of 22 kJ/m2. Furthermore, an improvement in flexural strength but not highly significant was found for majority of the composites. Overall, PALF-PP displayed better mechanical properties among the composites due to the high tensile strength of PALF. In most of the cases, T98 (degradation temperature at 98% weight loss) of the composite samples was higher (532–544 °C) than that of 100% PP (500 °C) matrix. Fractured surfaces of the composites were observed in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and analyses were made in terms of fiber matrix interaction. This comparison will help the researcher to select any of the natural fiber for fiber-based reinforced composites according to the requirement of the final product