after the national day and mid-autumn festival holidays, the zhejiang seamless manufacturing industry association, together with an expert team from huayue technology, visited tianpai smart park to conduct a specialized on-site research for intelligent upgrading. focusing on the labor-intensive pain points of the seamless industry, the team carried out field inspections in the production workshop, followed by a problem-solving seminar to accurately identify challenges and explore breakthrough paths.
the research highlighted three highly labor-reliant positions in the seamless knitting industry as critical "bottleneck" issues:
the manual inspection station relies solely on visual identification and screening by workers, resulting in low efficiency and high error rates.
the inspection station at the end of the production line lacks automated equipment, requiring workers to manually detect defects. prolonged work leads to fatigue and missed inspections.
the material handling tasks depend on manual pushing carts and forklifts, with the heavy physical labor making it difficult to recruit workers. while automation could help, standard agvs cannot meet the load-bearing requirements, and heavy-duty equipment comes with high costs.
the core challenge lies in the fact that seamless fabrics are extremely soft and prone to deformation—characteristics that are also the advantage of seamless knitted products—making it difficult for traditional automation equipment to adapt.
the tianpai team put forward a core requirement: quality management of seamless products must shift from "data analysis after inspection" to "data-driven process prevention." the key is to build a fully integrated smart closed-loop system covering weaving and dyeing processes, enabling parameter quantification, execution visualization, and automated feedback. establishing parameter standards and capturing key data will fundamentally enhance quality stability and the timeliness of feedback, thereby improving production efficiency, reducing rework rates, and strengthening the company’s market competitiveness.
in response to these three major industry pain points, professor wang jian’s team from huayue technology proposed three solutions:
using 3d imaging and ultraviolet-infrared spectroscopy to achieve high-precision fabric defect recognition, combined with a "machine preliminary screening manual re-inspection" model, which is expected to reduce manpower by over 30%.
developing user-friendly software to lower the learning threshold, with transferable technology.
providing customized assistance to help companies select agv forklifts compatible with existing logistics in seamless knitting, ensuring cost-effectiveness and practicality.
the three parties reached a consensus: priority will be given to upgrading the manual inspection and quality control stations to improve efficiency, developing specialized equipment adapted for seamless fabrics, and using tianpai’s new workshop as a pilot site, with successful validations to be promoted across the industry.
moving forward, the zhejiang seamless manufacturing industry association will continue to connect enterprise needs with technical resources, driving the intelligent transformation of the industry. relevant progress will be reported in real time.