The Top 5 Embroidery Innovations

I started off at my keyboard intending to write about the future of embroidery. As one of the most traditional methods of garment-decoration we are all familiar with, I was going to address embroidery demand in 2023. Supply should ultimately be driven by what the customer wants, so what changes are needed to answer the need of today’s consumer?

However, to get to the future my thoughts went back, and I started to think about what has been developed to date, what changes, innovations and improvements have occurred in digital industrial embroidery that have got us to where we are today?

Aside of knowing and understanding what you do when you use your embroidery machine, these are key factors to look at when you are reviewing your embroidery equipment or indeed looking to get into embroidery for the first time.

So, before analysing today’s market, I am going to run through the technological advancements that embroidery has seen in recent years and why they are so important.

Automatic Tension Management I can trace this back to 2003 when Melco launched the Amaya modular machine. Upper thread tension has caused people problems for years and still does on many machine models.

Manual tensioning is set based on a machine operators experience and formed opinion. The fabric you are embroidering certainly determines the tension needed, but some believe the type of stitch does as well. Opinion in a computerised process is dangerous and across different operators can lead to inconsistent production, more obvious on bulk orders.

Automatic-Tensioning is achieved by certain parts in the machine identifying the right tension for the fabric it is stitching into. Simple as that. No need for anyone to decide, it adjusts the tension as the design is running, which is great when embroidering over seams, for example a six-panel baseball cap. The embroidery will run straight over the central seam adjusting the tension as it goes.

Visual Hooping Alignment is another development in recent years and a must in my opinion on an embroidery machine. The system helps make sure that a design is perfectly positioned in the hoop and on the garment by aligning it against a seam or placket using a laser crosshair or a projected grid. Why would you try embroidering without such a feature, especially when customers bring you their own pricey branded merchandise and wants it personalised.

Speed is an obvious one but as with cars embroidery machines have got quicker over time. Similarly with cars, machines are not often run at their top-end speed but rather at a steady speed the operator is comfortable with.

The higher the top-end speed the machine will run at, the more productive and profitable you can be, so look for machines that will give you 1500 stitches a minute as a minimum.

Machine Networking Two-way communication from PC to machine provides impressive automation of many embroidery functions that were previously manual. Errors reports and statistics can be run on the production performance and automatic loading of every setting – colour, font, text and more by using a barcode system.

Inline Thread Printing allows you to work with just a white thread which is digitally printed according to the artwork file as it is fed to the embroidery machine. The thread required is a specially coated white thread that has been developed to work with the system. This unique innovation helps embroiders in several ways.

Firstly, it lets embroidery handle colour shading and blends like never before. It allows you to sample same day for any customer without having to wait for threads to arrive and means your thread stock holding is much smaller as you do not need to hold all the colours of the rainbow.

Since the thread is coloured as the embroidery runs there is no need to trim to do a colour change in a design which makes the backside of the embroidery much smoother and your production faster.

So, there you have it my top five innovations from the past that you should seriously consider when looking at your embroidery equipment. Next time I will be looking at the future of embroidery and how to make your production match the demands of today.