Garment Seam Design Element Alignment System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Apparel designers face challenges in aligning design elements across the seams of garments, requiring a precise and time-consuming manual process to ensure proper alignment, especially when cutting design elements to cross seams, which often involves trial and error.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that utilize a seam allowance module to calculate and apply an allowance for design elements, allowing them to be split into multiple parts and ensuring proper alignment across seams during garment assembly, using a user interface, communications means, and data storage to generate patterns for printing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a designer manually measures and aligns design elements across seams, then alignment precision is improved, but time consumption and manual effort increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical measurement and alignment process with a computer-based system that uses digital imaging and automated calculation. The system captures an image of the garment, digitally marks the seam line, and automatically calculates allowance values, eliminating the need for manual measuring tools and hand-based alignment procedures while maintaining precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables the design element alignment process to serve itself by automatically calculating the necessary allowance values based on the captured garment image and seam line position. The computer-based system performs the alignment calculations and generates the necessary measurement data without requiring continuous manual intervention, allowing designers to simply input the design element and receive pre-calculated alignment parameters.
2Manufacturing precision
If a designer cuts design elements into multiple pieces to cross seams, then alignment across seams is improved, but process complexity and manual intensity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary calculation of the allowance values and seam line positioning before the actual design element creation or cutting process. By pre-calculating the exact measurements needed for each piece based on the garment's seam lines and curvature, the system eliminates the need for trial-and-error cutting and allows designers to directly create accurately sized pieces without complex manual adjustments.
3Reliability
If allowance is added to design element parts to ensure proper alignment, then alignment reliability is improved, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the allowance parameter based on the specific characteristics of each garment piece, such as seam curvature, fabric type, and design element position. Rather than using fixed allowance values, the computer-based system calculates customized allowance parameters for each specific case, ensuring reliable alignment while accounting for variations in garment construction and reducing overall precision requirements through adaptive parameter adjustment.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates generally to garment design. In particular, embodiments of the present invention are directed to systems and methods configured to assist a garment designer in applying graphics and artwork across the seams of a garment.