News editors obtained the following quote from the background information suppli ed by the inventors:“Despite technological advances and the introduction of aut omation in many types of manufacturing,the manufacturing of fabric articles, su ch as garments, remains very labor-intensive. Sewing machineswere invented in t he early nineteenth century and were made possible based on the development of t helock stitch sewing technique. Today, some hundred and fifty years later, this same technology remains thefoundation of garment manufacturing. The modern pro cess of producing large quantities of ready-to-wearapparel relies heavily on ma nual labor and remains inefficient relative to other industrial manufacturing processes. Garment manufacturing includes multiple steps including sizing, folding , fitting, cutting, sewing,and material handling. The unique and varied propert ies of individual fabrics, such as weight, thickness,strength, stretch, and dra pe, as well as the complex nature of certain tasks, complicates material handling and automated garment manufacturing.
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