British scientists have snubbed the sewing machine by using a laser to weld a shirt together.
鈥淭he seams we鈥檙e making are probably stronger than you鈥檇 need to satisfy the army,鈥� says Paul Hilton of the Welding Institute in Cambridge.
Hilton says the technique can be used on a variety of fabrics, including fashionable stretch fabrics, breathable all-weather clothing and fleece fabrics.
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Laser welding is particularly useful for waterproof clothing, he says. 鈥淚nstead of having to waterproof the stitched seams in a separate process, we can make impermeable seams straight away.鈥�
Hilton adds that the technique should be simple to scale up to fully automated clothes manufacturing.
The researchers made the shirt from panels of viscose and polyester fabric. First they coated the edges to be bonded with a dye that absorbs infra-red radiation. Next, they overlapped the panel edges, sandwiching the dye in between.
Firing a low-power, infra-red laser at the fabric heats the dye and slightly melts the fabric, welding the panels together. The technique is featured in the trade journal Opto & Laser Europe.