Robots Set Their Sights On a New Job: Sewing Blue Jeans (reuters.com) 102
"Almost all clothing is made by hand due to robots' inability to handle limp fabrics," writes Slashdot reader jonzornow. "A new approach avoids these issues by temporarily stiffening fabric. A robotic system developed to use this technique is now heading to its first factory for testing." Reuters reports: Work at Siemens grew out of efforts to create software to guide robots that could handle all types of flexible materials, such as thin wire cables, said [Eugen Solowjow, who heads a project at a Siemens lab in San Francisco that has worked on automating apparel manufacturing since 2018.], adding that they soon realized one of the ripest targets was clothing. The global apparel market is estimated to be worth $1.52 trillion, according to independent data platform Statista. Siemens worked with the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute in Pittsburgh, created in 2017 and funded by the Department of Defense to help old-line manufacturers find ways to use the new technology. They identified a San Francisco startup with a promising approach to the floppy fabric problem. Rather than teach robots how to handle cloth, the startup, Sewbo Inc., stiffens the fabric with chemicals so it can be handled more like a car bumper during production. Once complete, the finished garment is washed to remove the stiffening agent.
"Pretty much every piece of denim is washed after it's made anyway, so this fits into the existing production system," said Zornow, Sewbo's inventor. This research effort eventually grew to include several clothing companies, including Levi's and Bluewater Defense LLC, a small U.S.-based maker of military uniforms. They received $1.5 million in grants from the Pittsburgh robotics institute to experiment with the technique. [...] Sanjeev Bahl, who opened a small jeans factory in downtown Los Angeles two years ago called Saitex, has studied the Sewbo machines and is preparing to install his first experimental machine. Leading the way through his factory in September, he pointed to workers hunched over old-style machines and said many of these tasks are ripe for the new process. "If it works," he said, "I think there's no reason not to have large-scale (jeans) manufacturing here in the U.S. again."
"Pretty much every piece of denim is washed after it's made anyway, so this fits into the existing production system," said Zornow, Sewbo's inventor. This research effort eventually grew to include several clothing companies, including Levi's and Bluewater Defense LLC, a small U.S.-based maker of military uniforms. They received $1.5 million in grants from the Pittsburgh robotics institute to experiment with the technique. [...] Sanjeev Bahl, who opened a small jeans factory in downtown Los Angeles two years ago called Saitex, has studied the Sewbo machines and is preparing to install his first experimental machine. Leading the way through his factory in September, he pointed to workers hunched over old-style machines and said many of these tasks are ripe for the new process. "If it works," he said, "I think there's no reason not to have large-scale (jeans) manufacturing here in the U.S. again."
What chemical? (Score:3, Insightful)
And how well washed?
No one wants to find out they got got crotch n skin cancer 20 years letter so a robot could sew their jeans.
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I had to go to the sewbo website faq to find it:
'What is this plastic? Is it safe? What happens to it after assembly?
Our process employs Polyvinyl Alcohol, a non-toxic polymer that is already in widespread use for textile production. It can also be found in products like laundry and dishwasher pods, eye drops, diapers, and even some water treatment plants. The plastic can be recovered and re-used in a closed-loop process. For applications where this is not possible, the polymer is non-toxic and biodegradabl
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Time will tell. I'd be ok with none if that's how it goes. I'm not one of those people who thinks their kids "owe" them grandkids.
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Stay out of nightclubs, then. Polyvinyl alcohol is one of the main ingredients in fog juice. (It's also one of the main ingredients in hard contact lens solution.)
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They'd sell a lot more jeans if they could market it as providing effortless birth control. (Granted all jeans can be effective birth control, but normally only by eliminating the fun.)
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Re:What chemical? (Score:4, Funny)
Dihydrogen monoxide will stiffen clothes if the temperature is below 0C.
It is soluble in warm water, so easy to remove.
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Dihydrogen monoxide has been shown to cause asphyxiation in sufficiently large quantities and it can also cause skin tissue to deform under extended exposure - I don't want that stuff anywhere near me.
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It's actually hydrogen hydroxide...
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Wait, you don't wear underwear with your jeans?
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Underwear doesn't go to the ankles and also isn't certified to block toxic chemicals in direct contact.
And that was a TMI question. Lol
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I was just horrified about the idea of crotch cancer, and I don't have experience with having crotch that extends all the way down to the ankles.
Damn, you must've had an amazing porn career.
Re: What chemical? (Score:3)
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Apparently if you're a man that fucks other men, you can make a pretty good bit of $$ in pr0n.
Not a trade off I'd like to make....
And hey, on the hetero side, the men might not get to make as much, but you DO get to lay lots of women, and they "do things"...so, just think of that as a
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And hey, on the hetero side, the men might not get to make as much, but you DO get to lay lots of women, and they "do things"...so, just think of that as a side benefit to the actual salary.
You're just a shill for Big Porn, trying to keep the little guy down!
Wait...
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I doubt the gay porn guys get that much either.
I find it amusing some clown down modded my porn reply as flame bait. Some people here are so humorless and stupid.
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Wait, you don't wear underwear with your jeans?
And how do you think underwear will be made once this robotic process becomes popular?
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Wait, you don't wear underwear with your jeans?
I don't. The purpose of underwear is to warm your family jewels and lower your sperm count.
If you wipe twice and shake thrice, you can go without.
I only wear underwear when hiking or biking, when chafing may be a problem.
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I don't. The purpose of underwear is to warm your family jewels and lower your sperm count.
Any actual evidence for your claims here? Bearing in mind that people in cold climates have been wearing under garments for literally hundreds of years...
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Any actual evidence for your claims here?
There's plenty of evidence that tight underwear reduces sperm count [harvard.edu] due to higher temperatures. Wearing no underwear keeps the boys even cooler.
Bearing in mind that people in cold climates have been wearing undergarments for literally hundreds of years...
When hunting seals on the icepack, excessive heat is the least of your problems.
But when you spend all day in an overheated cubicle farm, you aren't really in a "cold climate" anymore, regardless of the outside temperature.
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So gross...unless you wash them nightly.
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Nope....'Cause I'm Free Ballin'......
( sung to the tune of Tom Petty's Free Fallin')
Watch how much the price comes down (Score:5, Insightful)
Watch how much the price comes down, now that humans are no longer required to do the work. \sarc
It boggles my mind how Levi's manages to charge even more than ever while offshoring most of their labor at the same time. Which is why they are on my shit list. I refuse to buy new ones, I go to the thrift store instead. Ditto for dozens of other formerly "American" companies.
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It boggles my mind how Levi's manages to charge even more than ever while offshoring most of their labor at the same time. Which is why they are on my shit list. I refuse to buy new ones, I go to the thrift store instead. Ditto for dozens of other formerly "American" companies.
Not only that, they have reduced the number of sizes. If you happen to be trim and athletic like I am, good luck finding a pair of Levi's. For the most part all they make now are for the obese. And you have to be near six feet tall
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Is your problem buying jeans at stores, online or both? At 5'7" and somewhat slim I had problems for years finding casual pants that fit at physical retailers (lots of pants for the overweight though!) but as soon as I switched to buying them online it got fairly easy.
Of course you might be a good bit shorter than me and I could see that then being a pain.
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Oddly enough, we're the same size. And yes, I've tried online as well. Levi's does not make the size they used to which I bought. Everything is now longer and fatter.
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If you happen to be trim and athletic like I am, good luck finding a pair of Levi's.
My experience is the exact opposite of yours? I can only seem to find Levis for stickmen. Anything above 34 inch waist is just not there at my local establishments.
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Peak cotton. It actually does cost more to make those same jeans, even with the reduction in labor costs. All natural fibers have gone through the roof. Cashmere is probably the best example, there are many articles on how production is terrible for the environment which increases AGW, and in turn it just doesn't get as cold as it used to so the fibers aren't as long — there will literally never be top grade cashmere again, but that hasn't reduced production of course. They keep trying to increase it
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The bigger problem is that main production countries are running on slave labor, which is getting harder and harder to get as some of those nations are starting to run out of people who can be enslaved and capable of doing hard labor (i.e. China and young Uighurs) or immigration for better opportunities has become endemic and enslaved children are less productive than enslaved young adults who got out (Turkmenistan).
One of the main problems with cotton remains the human hard labor needed. As for "peak x" na
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The bigger problem is that main production countries are running on slave labor [...] As for "peak x" narratives, 1960s called. They want their narratives back.
The labor cost is not the largest cost, even when slave labor is not used. If you refuse to learn the lessons of 60 years ago, how will you function intelligently in the present?
Re:Watch how much the price comes down (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not the issue of cost. It's an issue of availability. People don't want to work in cotton field. It's hard labour.
Try asking a typical Western city hipster how much pay they'd need to get to do something like that, and you'll quickly find that they won't do it even for a very high salary. And more and more people are becoming soft city people, used to creature comforts and unwilling to give them up.
As for your final question, isn't it rhetorical considering that pretty much every "peak x" narrative was not just wrong, but wrong in a really stupid and easily visible way? Now you being a deeply religious disciple of Malthus probably don't understand that, because the narrative of "people depleting resources" is a religious one to you rather than something you could measure. Because if you did measure, you'd have to admit that we didn't hit "peak oil" in 1990s or 2000s for example. Not even close. Or any of the other ones really.
But for the more sane of us, we have in fact learned our lessons from past ramblings of Malthusians, did the actual math and concluded that he and his disciples keep being wrong both because they can't do math and because they have not a faintest clue of human condition. Not to mention not being genocidal utopians in the first place.
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It's not the issue of cost. It's an issue of availability. People don't want to work in cotton field. It's hard labour.
Thankfully someone invented a machine [britannica.com] to do the work.
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Indeed, why don't those people eat cake.
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The problem isn't lazy hipsters like you're implying your problem is there a jobs that are less work for the same or more pay. We have the same problem with a massive shortage of child care workers.
Supply and demand works both ways but whenever supply and
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I don't know. It could be because you're thinking in among the Marxist dogma lines, rather than reality. As in cucumber picking I did in my college days earned me easily twice the money I could make doing other jobs available to students.
And I had several people who wanted to come do it with me when I told them how much I made a day. Only one guy actually did take me up on it. He excused himself after a single day of work. He earned about a third I earned, and he was complaining that his back and arms hurt
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But for the more sane of us, we have in fact learned our lessons from past ramblings of Malthusians, did the actual math and concluded that he and his disciples keep being wrong both because they can't do math and because they have not a faintest clue of human condition. Not to mention not being genocidal utopians in the first place.
Preach it Brother! The carrying capacity of the earth has no limits - Malthus made the mistake of not understanding there will always be a way to allow more humans to live and always better than those who came before. To infinity and beyond.
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to be clear, I would be more than happy to work in a cotton field. For the right price. As it is, programming pays much more so I'm doing that.
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I remember last time I got told that by a friend who actually meant it during my student days. Fun part: I earned twice the money picking cucumbers that I earned doing other student time jobs, and to me having done that since 14, it was doable for me because I had the physique for it.
I called him to come with me to work the cucumber picking next year since there was always a shortage back then as immigrant labor didn't become a major thing yet. He lasted exactly one day. Then he excused himself for medical
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well, I grew up picking cherries so no big deal. It's hard (since I haven't done it in a while) but I'll grow into it.
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While picking things from trees tends to be much easier than picking things from the ground, I respect someone who did farm work in their youth regardless. Thumbs up.
I do suspect you're underestimating the "stress position and what it requires" in context, especially when related to something as precise as cotton picking.
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While picking things from trees tends to be much easier than picking things from the ground
Yeah but you don't have to worry about ladders.
I do suspect you're underestimating the "stress position and what it requires" in context,
10 years ago I would agree with you. Since then, my understanding of nutrition, physical training, and anatomy has grown enough that I feel confident I could build up a training plan to where my body to handle it. The main thing would be to not increase activity levels so quickly that I get injured seriously.
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I have no doubt that one could build a training plan to manage such stresses provided basic health and some time.
The point is that most people won't. Just like most people can do jobs like picking fruit and vegetables and earn a pretty good living. But they won't. Heck, people could eat better and exercise to massively reduce obesity and health problems it causes. But they won't.
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True.
Re: Watch how much the price comes down (Score:2)
Re: Watch how much the price comes down (Score:2)
Re: Watch how much the price comes down (Score:2)
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There's your problem right there. Levi 501s are "fashion" blue jeans. In the 60s blue jeans were just plain old pants for work or play that you wore because they were cheap and durable and you didn't care if you got them dirty.
Re: Watch how much the price comes down (Score:2)
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Watch how much the price comes down, now that humans are no longer required to do the work. \sarc
It boggles my mind how Levi's manages to charge even more than ever while offshoring most of their labor at the same time. Which is why they are on my shit list. I refuse to buy new ones, I go to the thrift store instead. Ditto for dozens of other formerly "American" companies.
Then don't buy from Levis. There are lots of other brands, some quite affordable.
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It boggles my mind how Levi's manages to charge even more than ever while offshoring most of their labor at the same time. Which is why they are on my shit list. I refuse to buy new ones, I go to the thrift store instead. Ditto for dozens of other formerly "American" companies.
This is called supply and demand. Levi's is the oldest and most well-known jeans company so they can afford to charge a premium. (In other words, the demand is there or they would obviously lower their prices).
Searching Amazon right now, I see Wrangler's available for around $20 (a price which has barely changed for more than a decade) and Levi's available for $40. Even at double the price, we're not exactly talking about designer-handbag type pricing for the Levi's.
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We're so greedy and stupid that as we advance is a species were literally going backwards.
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Brand new jeans are cheaper than they used to be. They're $10-$15. Just not name brand jeans, because you're paying for the brand label.
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What part of "name brand" do you not understand? Go into any Walmart, or on Amazon, and you'll find jeans for under $15. I've been wearing them for many years. No, they don't have a well-known brand label like Levis, so yes I must endure the embarrassment of not being trendy.
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Robots aren't always about reducing cost. In fact, Often robots are so expensive to engineer that they can be *more* expensive than human labor. What you do get with robots is a consistent, repeatable process that leads to consistent quality. And when there is an issue with the robotic process that degrades quality, further engineering can "debug" the issue and improve upon it. It's not so easy to do with humans.
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Price won't change, but tailoring might (Score:3)
Price won't change much, but clothing tailoring might. Labor costs are already very low per jean sold, probably $1-2. But what I would hope for is more clothing that is custom tailored for me right out of the factory. I go to a tailor and get my exact measurement, and clothing companies can create clothing which fits me perfectly. This is what I hope to get out of robots doing more of the work creating my clothes.
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Watch how much the price comes down, now that humans are no longer required to do the work. \sarc
It boggles my mind how Levi's manages to charge even more than ever while offshoring most of their labor at the same time. Which is why they are on my shit list. I refuse to buy new ones, I go to the thrift store instead. Ditto for dozens of other formerly "American" companies.
You think that's bad... you should see what Levi charge in the UK for the same product. Most Brits buy their jeans from M&S which is the same product but 1/3 of the price... M&S is definitely not a thrift store either.
Interestin this took so long (Score:2)
After all, starching cloth to high stiffness levels is a very old thing. My take is this was not the key issue here that prevented using robots before. As soon as there was sufficient desire to use robots, the solution was kind of obvious. Hmm. Supply-chain pressure as a COVID effect?
There goes the Bangladeshi economy (Score:1)
Bagladeshi dressmakers get paid so little (Score:2)
I doubt they are relevant to the cost. Except for the cheapest clothes. Much less than $1 to sew a pair of jeans.
So not clear how an expensive robot can replace them for sewing. And robots need to be maintained, human robots can just be replaced.
More important is being able to make clothes nearer to their markets.
No more "skinny" jeans, please (Score:2, Funny)
I would hack the software so the robots could never again make "skinny" jeans. Seriously, eff-you Levi's, for taking the original 505 jeans and "redesigning" them to be "skinny" jeans. Kudos to All American clothing company for making jeans for normal people.
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No kidding!
I remember Levi's used to make a loose-fit series of men's jeans that I really liked. I want to say it was 550's but maybe it was 560's? Anyway, they just stopped making it completely for many years. The Levi's store I visitied in an outlet mall told me the loose/relaxed fit just wasn't in style anymore so they eliminated it.
That's when I quit buying their brand.
Now, when I Google search, I see all sorts of 550/560 series loose-fit jeans showing up for sale. So I guess they brought them all back
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Wow. It's almost as if certain looks and styles come in to and out of current fashions and clothing manufacturers update their product lines based on what people are buying. Somebody stop the presses!
Seriously though, jeans are about the last thing to get in a fit about when it comes to changing fashions. They're durable as hell and last damn near forever. So if you still prefer relaxed when fitted is in style, there's nothing stopping you from continuing to wear the relaxed look. It's all cyclical any
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I get that but here's the problem: Levi's stopped making 550 jeans the way they used to in the 80s and 90s. Instead of coming up with a new number, they recut 550s. I realize coming up with a new number is a herculean task for marketing flakes but they do need to earn their keep on occasion.
Not merely about style though.... (Score:2)
The choice for "relaxed fit" vs "low rise" or "skinny" or some of the other types of jeans has a lot to do with how comfortable they are for the wearer. So eliminating one in the same of "fashion trends changing" is about as short-sighted as eliminating short-sleeve shirts because "you can just roll up a long-sleeve shirt if it's that big a deal".
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Try these: https://www.allamericanclothin... [allamericanclothing.com]
I used to buy Eddie Bauer jeans too because they would shorten them on demand but no longer.
Not New (Score:3)
Oh please, they're acting like none of us ever made clothing by duct taping fabric to thick cardboard and using a jigsaw to cut it out.
I'm waiting for the "buggy whip" argument (Score:2)
Automated manufacture of blue-jeans - and by extension probably a lot of other clothing as well - is poised to be yet another hit to the world-wide job market. Some will say "those people can find other work, because that's what's always happened in the course of industrialization and automation". I say that we're reaching the end of the road, and that within our lifetimes the "manu" part of manufacturing could be almost entirely extinct outside of quaint, niche boutique markets.
More extreme efficiency in m
Robot Sweatshops (Score:2)
Welcome to the 3rd millennium.
I'm a traditionalist. (Score:2)
I'd like my jeans sown by tiny hands, please. In fact, a nice touch would be to put a small card with a tracing of the hand of my manufacturer in the pocket. And don't get me started on where the best tasting chocolate comes from!
Considering ditching my iPhone. It's not quite as exploitive as I would like. It only involves "second-world problems."
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Yeah, I only buy diamonds from countries that can certify that they buy weapons for them, too. How are you supposed to appreciate and enjoy your bling if you don't know for sure that people suffered to get it to you?
What a wasted effort (Score:2)
The average pay in Bangladesh is so low that buying such a sewing robot would probably only become economically viable after enough years that you have to do some costly repairs, which in turn drives the price up.
Yes, you go through 3-5 sewing ladies during the same time, but who cares, you don't buy them, you only rent them, and you can throw them away when they're damaged or broken.
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That is correct. Robot-sewn clothes will only be an ESG vanity item.
how to get stiff (Score:2)
Why not just wet the fabric, then freeze it, and do the work in a cold room.
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Sure To Be GREAT For The Environment (Score:1)
The fashion industry is already being taken to task for the pollution and waste they export to other countries. Not to mention their labour practices.
Now, add yet more (probably) toxic chemicals to the mix. I can't wait!
Because the World Needs More Unemployment? (Score:2)
100,000 Asian kids will lose their jobs! (Score:2)
Wait... (Score:2)
Jobs? (Score:2)
I see, so it's not cheap enough to have them sewn in sweatshops in Southeast Asia (Americans expected to be paid, and not work in sweatshops, because we have laws against them), now there will be no jobs... and so who, exactly, is going to buy them?
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I see, so it's not cheap enough to have them sewn in sweatshops in Southeast Asia (Americans expected to be paid, and not work in sweatshops, because we have laws against them), now there will be no jobs... and so who, exactly, is going to buy them?
American diversity hires?
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No, racist, and you won't be able to afford them, either, because you'll be out of work.
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Ha! I live in California where I can steal whatever the fuck I want so long as it's less then $950. Food, boos, anything I can manage to grab while giving the finger to the security guard and store staff. All you fools that pay for stuff. LOL. Losers!!!
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No, racist, and you won't be able to afford them, either, because you'll be out of work.
I write software for money. And I do it better than they do offshore. I won't be out of work any time this century. But I might retire early.
Knees (Score:1)