A process for digitally developing a new fabric and for developing a new fabric based on a physical property of the fabric and rather than a fabric construction. The process comprises selecting a desired physical property of the new fabric and selecting a fabric type. The process also includes using a fabric construction calculator to develop fabric construction parameters for the fabric, wherein the fabric has the desired physical property selected. The desired physical property is a selected softness factor of the fabric.

A method for manufacturing a garment includes gathering customer data from a plurality of customers, the customer data being associated with respective ones of a plurality of garment orders and including customer information regarding at least one customizable garment parameter and generating a schedule for producing a plurality of customized garments including analyzing the at least one customizable garment parameter for the at least some of the plurality of garment orders. The method further includes manufacturing the plurality of customized garments according to the schedule.

The invention provides a system for performing dynamic production and knitting machine work management comprising a production demand management unit, an advanced scheduling management unit, a cloth pattern storage unit and a manufacturing execution unit. The production demand management unit receives at least one production demand data. The advanced scheduling management unit generates a production scheduling data according to working conditions of a plurality of knitting machines and the production demand data. The cloth pattern storage unit stores a plurality of knitting machine work setting data. The manufacturing execution unit controls each knitting machine to extract one of the plurality of knitting machine work setting data from the cloth pattern storage unit based on a production cloth pattern data. The knitting machine work setting data is forcibly deleted by the knitting machine when a knitting number meets a set value defined by the knitting number limiting data.

A process to close an end of a tubular manufactured article directly on hosiery and knitwear circular machines, a respective circular machine and a respective device are described. The process provides that a respective stitch is collected from each needle of at least one first half of adjacent needles of the machine cylinder; the stitches are arranged on corresponding needles of a second half of adjacent cylinder needles, so that each of the needles of the second half of the needles carries a pair of stitches of the last course, which are arranged, at first, on opposite cylinder needles with reference to a diameter of the cylinder; at least one yarn is fed to the cylinder needles; and the pairs of stitches are joined together and the end of the tubular manufactured article is closed, by processing the yarn with the needles of the second half of the cylinder needles.

Advances in actuating fabrics could enable a paradigm shift in the field of smart wearables by dynamically fitting themselves to the unique topography of the human body. Active fabrics and fitting mechanisms are described herein that enable garments to conform around surface concavities without requiring high elasticity or a multiplicity of closure devices. Advanced materials and systems innovations (1) enable novel garment manufacturing and application strategies, (2) facilitate topographical fitting (spatial actuation) through garment architectural design, and (3) provide tunable NiTi-based SMA actuation temperatures to enable actuation on the surface of human skin. Such fabrics and garments are usable in a variety of fields including medical compression, technical sportswear, exosuits, space suits and components thereof, or non-garment applications.

Custom-fit versions of knitted articles are produced according to digital representations of objects for which the articles are to be manufactured. The digital representations, optionally augmented by surface fitting algorithms, allow for accurate scaling of pattern-specified stitch counts for pattern elements representing the article taking into account wales and courses densities for the material(s) from which the article is to be made. Displayed dimensionally-accurate representations of the custom-fit articles allow for user-specified style and fit preferences to be made and a final digital pattern of the article to be produced. Machine instructions representing pattern pieces to be knitted are automatically produced from the final digital pattern of the article for a target computerized knitting machine and the custom-fit article then manufactured according to the machine instructions.

The present disclosure provides an upper for an article of footwear. The upper may include a knit element defining a portion of at least one of an exterior surface of the upper and an opposite interior surface of the upper. An inlaid strand may extend through the knit element, and a tongue and the knit element may have a common yarn at least at a forward portion of the tongue, and the tongue may extend through a throat area of the upper.

The present disclosure provides an upper for an article of footwear. The upper may include a knit element defining a portion of at least one of an exterior surface of the upper and an opposite interior surface of the upper. An inlaid strand may extend through the knit element, and a tongue and the knit element may have a common yarn at least at a forward portion of the tongue, and the tongue may extend through a throat area of the upper.

Systems and methods producing a customised patient respiratory interface are disclosed. Data representative of one or more landmark features of a head of a human is obtained. One or more landmark feature locations of the landmark features are identified based on the data. A set of manufacturing specifications for production of the patient respiratory interface component is determined based on the one or more landmark feature locations. The patient respiratory interface component is produced based on the set of manufacturing specifications.

Systems and methods for automatically producing a cord structure are provided herein. In one embodiment, a method comprises automatically forming, with at least one robotic arm, a first plurality of loops in a first plane, and automatically forming, with the at least one robotic arm, a second plurality of loops in a second plane orthogonal to the first plane, the second plurality of loops slippably engaged with the first plurality of loops. In this way, cord structures may be quickly constructed, thereby reducing labor input and expense.