The Portuguese automation machinery manufacturer ESI Robotics is working to launch in 2025 an innovative robot for sewing, which its co-founder Gil Sousa believes will be a game changer for the textile sector.
ESI stands for Engineering, Solutions and Innovation, reflecting the company’s focus on research and development, industrial automation, robotics and mechanical solutions. It has 40 workers and is based in Portugal’s northern city of Vila Nova de Famalicão, a textile manufacturing hub.
Despite its location, the company’s current focus on launching a new sewing robot is its first project in the textile sector for 17 years. Since it was spun-off from the University of Minho, it has focused on the automotive, food, and construction industries, among others.
The textile opportunity has arisen through participation in a national project ‘TEXP@CT – Innovation Pact for the Digitalization of Textiles and Clothing’, which the company joined in October (2023). The project was launched last July (2022) and is designed to help the local industry in its digital transition, and to become more competitive in global markets, becoming more resilient and more sustainable.
With a total investment of €45.8m, TEXP@CT is led by a Portuguese manufacturer of underwear, loungewear and beachwear, the Impetus Group, with scientific coordination by the Portuguese Technological Centre for Textile and Clothing (Centro Tecnológico Têxtil e Vestuário – CITEVE) and involves 40 partners, including other textile manufacturers and universities.
ESI Robotics joined the initiative in October with an investment of €838,784, having sourced €501,635 from European Union (EU) funds, to develop two robotic cells – one for the sewing process capable of developing, for example, hems and side joints of parts, and another for fabric collection and cutting processes.
The development of robots and mechanical solutions for sewing is “one of the most complex projects we are currently involved in”, ESI cofounder Gil Sousa told WTiN, adding that it is early to tell what kind of fabrics they will be well suited for. The company counts on CITEVE’s knowledge in the textile sector for this challenge.
The potential of success is significant, said an ESI Robotics note, which stressed how sewing is the most labour-intensive job in clothing manufacture, accounting for up to 40% of the total cost of garment manufacturing.
Considering the global competition to find an automatic solution to replace humans in this aspect of clothing manufacture, Sousa said his company is innovating by not only trying to create a technical innovation at an industrial level but by its intention to market a system by 2025. Furthermore, its robots will have a digital IT component, allowing companies to “get data in real time, communicate it...”, he added.
He told WTiN, for instance, the multinational Impetus “invested a lot in automation” and has developed sophisticated solutions for several procedures, such as for its distribution chain, but it still “has a huge warehouse full of people sewing”.
Given European labour shortages, these jobs could become difficult to fill, and if that happened, “then there would be a brutal drop in production”, he warned. He explained that most people sewing in Portugal “are reaching retirement age (…) and there are no people wanting to do that work”, which cannot be learned quickly, and one has to like it to do it.
Sousa is confident that this technology will be successful, since CITEVE “works with all [textile] companies and already has some interesting international contacts”.
The company is also developing a robotic system for launch in 2025, for fabric collection and cutting processes. Here ESI Robotics is working with another Portuguese company, Mind, which is also delivering innovative technology, while ESI focuses on robots grabbing distinct types of fabric pieces and taking them to another area.
Sousa explained that, for instance, to cut the sleeves of a t-shirt, its system “makes sure that the fabrics are grouped together to have as little waste as possible and sometimes, we can even group cuts of three or four different T-shirts”.
He added: “The robot goes there, picks up one and knows that this one is, for example, for production line A, so it will place it somewhere, and then there will be a conveyor, for example, which will take it to where it needs to go.” Nowadays, this job is done by human hands, which take longer and can make mistakes, he said.
“We have already done some manipulation tests with crossed microneedles, but for some fabrics, this may not be possible, so we are also using vacuum systems (…) that create a series of decompressions and differences of pressure to not suck in the piece too much,” said Sousa.
This system relies on digital workflow, allowing decision makers to change the location to where a fabric should be placed quickly and remotely. Sousa added that, in future, artificial intelligence will be used to “provide a roadmap to optimise” both sewing and cutting processes.
ESI Robotics’ machines are designed to help companies boost their productivity by increasing quality and having fewer rejects, and therefore reducing final prices. Moreover, its robots are energy efficient, shutting down when not used, being “made with lighter materials” and parts that last longer, according to Sousa.
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