Textile Repurposing via Strip Segmentation and Soluble Adhesive Bonding
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The textile and apparel industry faces challenges in reducing waste and environmental impact due to the lack of scalable and economically viable upcycling techniques that can transform used clothing into new products with minimal or zero waste, while also meeting contemporary fashion demands.
Innovation Solution
A method involving the deconstruction of discarded clothing into strips, application of a soluble adhesive, and sewing using a long-arm quilting machine to create unified garment components with minimal waste, allowing for the transformation of existing textiles into new products with engineered designs and surface patterns, eliminating the need for extensive cutting and sewing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of substance
If traditional recycling methods are used to break down textiles into fibers, then waste is reduced, but the textile loses its fabrication form and requires extensive reprocessing
Solution Approach 1:
The garment is segmented into component parts (sleeves, body, collar, etc.) which are then individually processed into strips and reassembled. This allows the textile to maintain its structural integrity while being transformed into a new design, avoiding complete fiber breakdown and reducing manufacturing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of breaking down the textile completely into fibers and rebuilding it, the invention inverts the approach by cutting the textile into strips and reassembling them in a new configuration. This maintains the fabric structure while achieving waste reduction and design transformation.
2Ease of manufacture
If upcycling techniques are used to retain textile fabrication form, then manufacturing complexity is reduced, but waste reduction is limited compared to complete recycling
Solution Approach 1:
The garment is divided into multiple strips through systematic cutting patterns. This segmentation allows near 100% material utilization as the strips are rearranged to form new garment components, minimizing waste while maintaining manufacturing simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transforms the two-dimensional fabric into one-dimensional strips, then reassembles them into new two-dimensional garment components. This dimensional transformation enables complete material utilization while simplifying the manufacturing process through standardized strip assembly.
3Adaptability or versatility
If manual disassembly and sorting is performed, then design flexibility is maintained, but productivity and scalability are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The garment is pre-cut into standardized strips along predetermined lines before assembly. This preliminary action creates uniform components that can be quickly assembled into various designs, maintaining design flexibility while significantly increasing production speed and scalability.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention creates a dynamic assembly system where standardized strips can be reconfigured into different garment designs based on demand. This allows the same raw materials to be transformed into various products, maintaining adaptability while enabling scalable production through systematic assembly processes.
4Productivity
If fast fashion production is used to meet consumer demand, then productivity increases, but textile waste generation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention recovers and reuses textile materials that would otherwise be discarded. By transforming used garments into new products through strip reconstruction, it eliminates waste generation while maintaining high productivity through efficient material utilization and scalable assembly processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical parameters of the textile by transforming it into strips and reassembling them in new configurations. This parameter transformation allows the same material to create multiple fashion trends, increasing productivity while eliminating waste associated with traditional fast fashion production.
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure addresses a problem in relation to the environmental destruction that excessive apparel production can produce. In various embodiments, existing textile products are deconstructed into pieces of fabric and then reassembled into apparel in a manner that creates minimal or zero waste. In some embodiments, the fabric pieces will be positioned inside of one or more pattern pieces so as to completely cover each one without overlapping its border. The positioned pieces will be treated with an adhesive and then have a paper layer adhered to it to hold the positioned fabric pieces in place while they are stitched together. Then, the resulting sandwich will be soaked to remove the paper and dissolve the adhesive. The resulting unified fabric component will then be available to be stitched together with other similarly formed fabric components to form a garment.