On-Demand Design & Manufacturing of Customised 3D Fashion & Textile Products

The UK fashion design and technology is one of the UK's most important creative industries, contributing >£30bn p.a. to the UK economy. Unfortunately, it mainly relies on a linear model of production and consumption, with long, globally distributed supply chains that encourage over-production, resulting in ca. 300,000 tonnes of textile landfill/incineration waste in the UK per year.

Globally, the fashion industry is responsible for up to 10% of all GHG emissions, combined with other negative environmental and social impacts. Transition to circular economies provides opportunities for UK producers to increase their competitiveness with greater scope for re-shoring and shorter, more agile supply chains with distributed, digitally linked smart manufacturing operations.

This requires greater integration of digitally driven design, smart manufacturing with automation, and other advanced technologies, so that the UK can become a global leader in sustainable, customised textile/fashion design and manufacturing.

To facilitate the transition, LITAC wishes to integrate the production of functional fibres from textile wastes, additional practice-based 3D design and manufacturing capabilities with existing high-quality facilities to provide a new platform for research in innovative and sustainable design and manufacturing operations. This will be carried out collaboratively with our industry network of >2,500 partners (UK micros, SMEs and PLCs) across the textile, fashion and colour sectors, drawn from the AHRC Future Fashion Factory CICP.

The combination of the Institute's existing design and technology research expertise, state-of-the-art facilities and long-established industry partnerships provides an excellent foundation for successful innovation and translation of the new research findings into industrial strategy and commercialisation. Such a model for collaborative cooperation, innovation and translation can be rolled out across all other fields.

This should have a significant impact on both the economic, and environmental, performance of the UK's creative and cultural sector.

3D design and automated manufacturing of customised high value textile products from recycled textile materials & garment waste is a strategically important area of development in the industry and for practical implementation of viable circular economies in the UK.

We are applying to Strand One of this call to purchase key equipment to achieve this goal and to enable the following capabilities: 1. Characterise changes in the chemical composition of textile waste materials; 2. Convert thermoplastic synthetic polymers into functional fibres; 3. Digitally design customised 3D fashion products based on individual subjects;

4. Undertake computer-aided 3D weaving of seamless fashion products and other high value textile products (including composites) with complex 3D shapes and geometries.

The new equipment purchases cover: (1) replacement of an out-of-date meltspinning fibre extrusion system, (2) additional state-of-the-art equipment for the 3D Weaving Innovation Centre (WIC) including a multi-shuttle loom and warp creel delivery system; (3) a spectrophotometer, for the analysis of recycled polymer material compositions, including colourants; and (4) a 3D body scanner, to enable digitally design and customised fit to subject garments, that reduce wastage and allow for a fully-digital prototyping process.