anatomy of shell garments part 5 garment construction · pdf filetextile, all sewn seams...

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Anatomy of Shell Garments

Copyright © 2010 SM Designs Europe Ltd

The Series

History

Components

Construction

Testing

GarmentConstruction (ThisIssue)

Bringing It AllTogether

The Future

Brought to you in association with BFE Labs - Solutions For Austerity & Hostility

A shell garment, is a shell garment right? Well, they are if you mean that they have twosleeves and a body.

The way a shell garment is put together can have the biggest effect on how it performs. In recentyears garment construction has taken a leap forward with several new technologies beingintroduced by manufacturers. But, does this technology actually mean anything to user comfortor performance?

Seam Sealing

Modern shell garments can be assembled fromas many as fifteen different parts. Whiledifferent techniques have been used toassemble garments, the vast majority ofproducts still rely on sewing as the mainmethod of assembly. While techniques likeultra-sonic welding offer benefits i.e. there areno needle holes to compromise thewaterproofness of the garment, it hasn't beenwidely adopted or promoted by laminatedevelopers. Stories abound of welded seamsnot being robust enough, but the main reasonwelding isn't more prevalent is that it wouldaffect a revenue stream in the form of seamtape sales, so there is no great drive to optimiselaminates for welding.

To maintain the waterproof integrity of thetextile, all sewn seams require seam sealingusing a seam sealing tape. The tape has asimilar composition to the laminate it is being

applied to with the addition of a hot meltadhesive. The tape, in roll form, is applied tothe seam or garment using heat and pressurethereby creating a waterproof seam.

A modern garment can have an area ofbetween 0.1m2 (1ft2) to 0.2m2 (2.2ft2) of tapedseams over its surface. This coverage has asignificant effect on the functional area of thegarment as there is in effect no vapour transferin these areas. To combat this manymanufacturers have moved from away fromtraditional seam taped seam widths of around22mm (~1") to micro taped seams that are lessthan 12mm (½") wide.

While this has reduced the amount of seamcoverage in a garment, adopting the use of

Part 5Garment Construction

SewingYarn

AdhesiveSeam Tape Knit

Laminated Shell

10mm to 20mm

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The Series

History

Components

Construction

Testing



The Future


micro seams has led to a new problem. Ingarments where there are many panels it isextremely difficult to create an effective sealwhere seam tape crosses over garment seamjunctions. This is made worse by the use of

micro seam tapes, where it was not possible toseal the crossover due to the narrow width ofthe tape. To fix these new problemsmanufacturers introduced cut disks to sealcrossover seams.

As heat and pressure are used to apply theseseals the surrounding materials can bedamaged. This damage can be catastrophic ifthe laminate is melted or more subtle in the

form of face textile delamination. In facetextile delamination the bond between theouter face of the laminate and the underlyingmembrane or coating. Apart from the cosmeticeffect of the delamination, it also affects theperformance of the garment and also it'sworking life leading to reduced user comfortand early replacement of the product.

Seam sealing is still a manual process and assuch is dependent on the skill of the operatorand the settings of the equipment.

Garment Accessories

The name would suggest that accessories aresome type of optional extra added to thegarment. It is in fact the name given to theadded items like zippers, pockets, cord tunnelsand wicking barriers that all shell garmentshave. However, these items and how they arefixed to the garment also contribute to itsperformance and durability.

Most modern garments use a combination ofsewing and bonding technologies for attachingaccessories to their products. For high stressareas like main zippers, the attachment methodstill relies on sewing and subsequent seamsealing. However, in recent years bonding ofaccessories using hot melt adhesives have



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The Series

History

Components

Construction

Testing



The Future


become much more common on items likepockets, pocket zippers and pocket bags.

Keep in mind that all these accessories have aneffect on garment performance and durability.As pressure and temperature are used it isrelatively common to see delamination in theseareas. With regard to garment performance,vapour transfer is highly restricted if not totallyeliminated in areas where accessories arebonded due to the adhesives covering thefunctional area.

When it comes to zippers the current trend hasbeen to replace the traditional zipper and stormflap with a water resistant alternative. Thisprovides are reasonably water resistant barrier,

simplifies construction and reducesmanufacturing costs.

This type of zipper is normally bonded to thegarment to avoid needle holes from sewing andsubsequent seam sealing. However, care shouldbe taken when cutting for the zipper opening.Cutting with scissors leaves a raw edge thatallows capillary wetting out of the textile inbad weather and can lead to the textile fraying.The edges on textile openings really need tohave no raw edges or as some manufactures arenow doing is to cut the textile with ultra-sonic

cutters that cut and fuse the edge at the sametime.

Conclusion

Garment styles and manufacturing techniqueshave taken major steps forward in recent years.This has been mostly driven by a fewinnovative companies. However, thisinnovation comes at a cost to the user otherthan just financial; performance, durability andnew failure modes have been introduced thathave a direct effect on the finished garment. Itis fair to say though that buying cheapnormally comes at a cost and investing in aproduct where the manufacturers reallyunderstand garment manufacture is money wellspent.



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anatomy of shell garments part 5 garment construction · pdf filetextile, all sewn seams...

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