Fiber cloth fabric, also referred to as LED luminous fabric, luminous cloth, is woven from plastic optical fibers interwoven with warp or weft threads.
By combining LEDs with electronic control systems and optical processing, the fabric can emit light and change color. Due to these characteristics of fiber optic fabrics, after the fabrics are cut and processed according to their design, a sewing process must take place.
When processing optical fiber fabric, it is imperative not to damage the fibers.
Several areas that require your attention are highlighted below for your convenience:
1. Adjustment of the machine:
a) In order to sew fiber optic fabric, the sewing machine’s pressure angle should be set to the lightest setting. In order to prevent wear and pressing, the pressure angle and gears on the sewing machine should be replaced with plastic.
Fabrics consisting of broken fibers will, in normal circumstances, be scrapped if two parts of the sewing machine are not adjusted.
b) Sewing needles, in general, use small stitches. So, smaller needle spacing should be used, as well as a slower sewing speed. This is also done to pierce the fiber in the fiber fabric with the needle tip of the sewing machine.
2. If it is the first time processing this kind of fiber optic fabric, you can activate the fiber optic fabric controller to make the fabric luminous. Sewing with luminous fabric allows you to observe the light guiding the fabric.
If the light is not guided, the fabric fibers have been crushed by the sewing machine. If you are skilled in sewing this kind of fiber optic fabric, you should not connect the LED light first; rather, you should connect the LED light after you have completed the sewing so that the fabric can be easily stacked, and the LED light bar doesn’t move.
Efficiencies in production are improved by the mixing staff’s production actions.
3. After sewing, do not iron with a high-temperature iron. Many times, the finished product has a good luminous effect, but if it is accidentally ironed, it will lose its light guide and become useless.
Note: plastic optical fiber will be scrapped at temperatures above 85 degrees Celsius.
4. Touch the seam edge by hand for inspection after sewing a finished product. Stop if there is a thorn. These points are used to tie the optical fiber, and scissors are used to cut it. The protruding part of the broken fiber should be removed.
5. After the LED lamp is turned on, we need to check the lighting effect of the sewn product. Standard qualified products should have a uniform luminous effect and be bright throughout, which changes with LED color.
There are instances when only one or two optical fibers out of an entire product are qualified. Probabilities like this always exist.
Further, the optical fiber fabric can be brighter on the side near the LED light source than on the side far from it. It is obvious in this case that the length of the light guide exceeds 70 cm because the optical fiber light guide has attenuation.
6. Fiber optic fabric must be packaged once it has passed the quality inspection after the finished product has been made. It’s also vital to pay attention to the packaging.
Unless you have a clear understanding of how the product works and package it properly, you may already be delivering scrap products to the customer.
Following are some important points to keep in mind when packaging:
a) You should use a thicker and more rigid box, which will be more resistant to pressure and will be more protective of the items inside. You should also choose a box that is suitable for the item’s size.
b) You might be using factory workers to pack the products. To fold a fiber fabric in half along its lines, the fibers should not be squashed to a 180 degree angle. Keeping the fabric in this position for long periods of time will result in visible creasing.
A long product should be folded in half, and then we should place a foam rod on the folded part, so that the foam rod will support and protect the optical fiber fabric, as shown in the figure.
c) Another option is to use a PP bag outside, put the material inside the PP bag and close it, then place it in a carton and seal it, which provides a simple waterproofing effect. If the carton outside gets wet, the product is protected by the PP bag.
The above are some precautions to take when sewing and packaging fiber optic fabrics.
This content should give you a better understanding of the production of fiber optic fabrics. If you would like additional information, be sure to check out our blog and follow us for updates.
