Bar Code Media - The Latest Fashion

Identifying bolts of dyed fabric is not an easy task in the garment industry. Each roll of fabric is assigned a lot number, which correlates with the production ticket hanging on the outside of the vat of dye. Employees use an indelible resin pen to write this lot number - which can be up to seven digits long - on the fabric. Problems often occur when fabric is dyed a dark color, which makes the handwritten number difficult to find. Once the handwritten number is found, it is often difficult to read. There is also a high margin of error when employees copy the production ticket number onto the fabric.

Roanoke, VA-based VAR Dominion Solutions has developed a turnkey system for dyeing material, while tracking the fabric. Dominion Solutions discovered the need for a solution after talking with one of its existing customers.

"We were approached by engineers at a large fleecewear/sportswear manufacturer in Virginia about three years ago," explains Skip Taliaferro, senior account executive at Dominion Solutions. "The company had seen an installation done overseas that created a durable bar-coded tag that could survive the dyeing process. However, the solution used a dot-matrix printer, which wouldn't stand up in an industrial environment, and the cost was astronomical. The material manufacturer wanted to see if there was a local company that could provide an efficient solution."

Meeting The Dyeing Demand
Taliaferro knew some vendors were sewing in 7 mil Nomex fabric tags, printed with a dot-matrix printer. The tags resisted the dye, but the data was often erased from the tags in the dyeing process.

Taliaferro discovered media that could be used in thermal transfer technology, but wouldn't hold up well in the dye vat - an extremely harsh environment. "Our first try worked well in the washing cycles, but wouldn't withstand dyeing for 12 hours and high temperatures," he explains. "So, our engineering team changed the substrates (properties) of the media. During nine months of testing and retesting, we changed the types of glue and primers that hold the glue. Failures were associated with the different sulfur dyes. The pH balance can be so high that it eats away at the face coat on the tag, and the data is lost.

Dominion Solutions worked during the last three years to develop its turnkey solution. The final product is based on durable bar code tags, which use a heat-sealed glue. The tags are printed using Intermec (Everett, WA) 4400 and 4420 thermal transfer printers. Bar code label design software from Loftware (York, ME) ties the solution together. "This media is fairly thick," Taliaferro explains, "and it's held on by friction. Once the label is peeled from its backing, it must be used, or it's wasted. Print speeds reach up to 8 inches per second (ips). Our solution results in scannable bar codes - even after dyeing and napping (when the hairy or downy surface is raised). Print is not smudged, distorted, or bleached out in the process." Taliaferro also points out that every dye solution should be thoroughly tested before any solution is implemented.

The End Results
When the identifiers were written with indelible resin pens, the ink often bled through two or more layers of fabric. Depending on where the number was written, 12 inches to 72 inches of fabric per roll was sometimes wasted. The new tags eliminate this waste, since the glue can't soak through the fabric. Errors are also eliminated through limiting the need for manual data entry.

"Cost justification varies by textile type and customer," says Taliaferro. "In general, the return on investment is quick - sometimes it's as little as six months. However, some companies could see an ROI in as long as two years."

Companies also save in labor costs by eliminating the time employees spend looking for the lot number. "An average textile company can throw away close to $1 million in fabric," he continues. "System prices vary, but we're seeing cost justification of about 10 times the cost of the installation."