The spreading and cutting department in Garment Industry

What is a cutting room?

The department of any garment industry, where several layers of fabric are cut together by pattern for the production of the garment, is called the spreading and cutting department or the cutting room. The spreading and cutting department has special importance in garment manufacturing, it is not possible to make a garment in abundance without a cutting department. The fabric is first cut using the first pattern to make any garment. To complete the garment, the fabric is cut into several parts, then these cut parts are sent to the sewing department for stitching, where the whole garment is made by adding these parts.

The cutting room has a huge contribution in the garment industry. The first step in the garment manufacturing process is cutting after the buyer has confirmed the order, this cutting done in bulk is possible only by the cutting department. The spreading and cutting department receives this order from the production manager. If the fabric is not cut properly according to the design, it ruins the entire order. In other words, the cutting department is the fundamental foundation of any garment industry.

The cutting room has a huge contribution in the garment industry

Function of the spreading and cutting department:

The main function of the cutting room is to cut the fabric according to the design. Firstly, the cutting department provides the pattern of garment to be cut by the production department. The various parts of the pattern are then spread to the appropriate location above the spread fabric by the cutting master. After this, all the parts of the pattern are removed by marking with chalk and all these layers are cut together by a cutting machine.

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The work in the spreading and cutting department

1/ Take fabric from the fabric store:

The cutting department receives the order form the production manager to cut the fabric. After receiving the order, the cutting incharge sends the fabric requirement, and receives the fabric from the fabric store.

2/ Relaxation of fabric:

Knitted fabric takes longer to relax than woven fabric. So, after getting the fabric from the fabric store, the cutting department first opens the fabric rolls, and then spreads the fabric on the table and leaves it to relax overnight. As a result, the fabric is fully rested.

3/ Cut order planning:

The cutting master first plan to cut any order. This planning takes into account the cutting master, garment design, numbers of pattern, pattern components, types of fabric, fabric print, fabric design, embroidery, fabric spreading length and thickness and machine available for cutting etc. there is no mistake in cutting and the fabric wastage should be minimized in cutting.

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Fabric spreading is very necessary to spread the fabric properly for cutting

4/ Fabric spreading:

It is very necessary to spread the fabric properly for cutting. There are large tables in the cutting department to spread the fabric. Several fabric layers are spread on these tables for mass production.

The length of fabric spread on the table is kept as per requirement and the number of layers of fabric to be spread is determined according to the cutting machine or cutting order.

Spreading is the process of unwinding large rolls of fabric onto long, wide tables and laying them in superimposed plies of specified length.

The number of lays depends upon the number of garments desired and the fabric thickness.

The maximum cutting width is the usable fabric width minus selvedge or needle marks caused by stencil marks.

Fabric utilization is the amount of fabric actually utilized in the marker as the percentage of the total fabric area.

The cutting marker is laid on the topmost layer.

Type of lay plan used: Since open width fabric is used, full garment lay is used that has both left and right pieces.

Type of lay: Multiple Ply is used in which a number of fabric layers are stacked on one top of another.

Forms of spreading: Fabric is laid the same way up with grain or print pattern running in the same direction. Fabric has to be cut at the end of each ply.

Laying parameters

Pattern matching.
Relaxing the fabric to remove all the tensions.
Alignment of ply edges in correct position over each other.

Methods of Fabric Spreading:

Completely manual laying-up;
Electrically driven laying-up by spreading machines (Semi-automatic or fully automatic)
Manual laying-up aided by spreading and cutting off devices;
Manually driven, mechanized laying-up using carriages;

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5/ Planning and making markers:

After fabric spreading, the cutting master systematically spreads the pattern on the topmost surface of the fabric. First the large parts of the pattern are spread, and later the smaller parts are spread. Now these stretched patterns are traced over the fabric with the help of chalk and after marking all the parts of these patterns are removed.

6/ Fabrics Cutting:

All the layers are cut together by a cutting machine after marking by paper pattern. Several types of cutting machines such as: straight knife cutting machine, round knife cutting machine, band knife cutting machine, Die cutting machine, notcher machine, computerized cutting machine etc. are used to cut these layers of fabric.

Cutting parameters:

Precision in cutting: To ensure the cutting of fabric - accurately according to the line drown of the marker plan.
Clean edge: By avoiding the fraying out of yarn from the fabric edge. Cutting edge must be smooth and clean. Knives must be sharp for smooth or clean edges.
Consistency in cutting: All the sizing safe of the cutting parts should be the same as if the knife should be operated from the right angle of the fabric lay.

Types of cutting equipments:

Scissors
Round knife
Straight knife
Band knife cutting m/c
Die cutting (collars and cuffs )

Preparation for sewing:

Position marking: Egg- pocket positions, tucks, pocket positions etc
Shade marking: each component is marked with a unique no. printed on a small ticket stuck on the component.
Bundle making: according to size, color, quantity
Bungle tickets: to identify each bundle to size, lot, style and color wise.
Fusing parameters: There are different types of fusings depending upon the end use and type of fabric.

Computerized methods of fabric cutting:

Computer controlled knife cutting.
Cutting by a Laser beam.
Cutting by Waterjet.
Cutting by the Plasma Torch.

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7/ Shorting:

After cutting the fabric, all these parts should not be mixed together. For this, different sizes and colors are shortened.

8/ Bundling:

After shorting the cut fabric parts or components, the cut parts are made into separate bundles size wise and colour wise. So that it does not mix with other parts, colour or size.

9/ Numbering of garment plies (Parts):

After the bundle is created, the numbering on the layers starts. After bundling all the separated parts, stickers are numbered on each layer of the bundle. And now all these bundles are placed on the inventory table before sending them to the next operation.

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10/ Inspection component:

After shorting, the cutting quality and standard of all these cut components are inspected and if any type of defect is seen in any component, then the defective parts are either replaced or removed.

Shorting embroidery or printing parts:

Now in these finished bundles, according to the order requirement, the panels of the garment on which painting or embroideries are to be done, the size vise is taken apart and then these parts are sent for printing or embroidery. After embroidery or printing, all these are re-examined by the cutting department. Now after the investigation, all these bundles are sent to the sewing department together.

11/ Re-cutting panels:

Whatever panel of garment is found to be defective in the bundle is re-cut. After receiving these bundles by the sewing department, the parts in which the defect is found are replaced by cutting of the cutting department.

We hope these shares help you better understand the spreading and cutting department. Cosma Technology provides modern, automatic cutting room machinery and equipment with the best price. Solutions Cosma brings include: Automatic cutting machine, Automatic fabric loaders, Automatic fabric spreading machine, Automatic labeling machine, and spreading tables used in sewing factories: Conveyor table, Standard Table, Air blowing Table. And smart Cosma's softwares: CAD Solution: marker making software, pattern design software, Digital Cutting Room Software, Cut Planning Software COPS. Contact us for the best advice.